Harry and Ron's Adventure With Time Travel
by monkeymail
Summary: When Harry Potter and Co are alerted to the devious plot of Dolohov to go back in time to change the outcome of the Second Wizarding War there's only really one thing they can do...follow him. Will they be able to change the future? Rated T for Violence and Sexual References, also trigger warning for domestic violence as it is discussed.
1. Preface

**Yes I've changed parts of the story again (hence this new chapter at the beginning) but it's nothing major just so Dolohov has a better reason to be going to the past, I've only changed some of the conversation in the next chapter and that's it (so yay, you don't have to read the whole thing again).**

**I do not own Harry Potter, anything you may recognise is the work of JKRowling and the Library is based off the movie/tv show the Librarian(s) which I also do not own. Please review and I hope you like it.**

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Alexander Walsh was sat in his office at his desk. His family were keepers of one of the oldest libraries in the Northern Hemisphere. It was a secret, handed down to each generation, a library that housed ancient texts that dated back to before the times of the great Merlin himself. The Library was peaceful at night, after everyone had gone home and the majority of the lights had been switched off for the night a sense of tranquility seemed to take over and this was the time that Walsh found he could always get the most work done.

Walsh absent-mindedly stirred the spoon in the fresh cup of tea that sat at his side as he translated a text that had been sent from Egypt earlier that morning. A group of Muggle archaeologists had discovered it in a tomb the believed to be that of a Pharaoh, in reality it was a tomb of an ancient Wizard. The Muggle's of course had had their findings confiscated and their memories modified. The artifacts had been sent to various Ministries for study while the ancient texts had been sent to the Library for translation and study.

It was the early hours of the morning when Walsh first heard the noise, a creaking sound like that of a closing door, or heavy steps on old wooden floors. He lent back in his chair and stretched, checking the area around him as he did. Nothing, just shadows from the candlelight on his desk. Walsh sighed, he hated working late but the Egyptian Ministry were expecting a translation by noon the next day.

"Why they need me to do it is a mystery," he grumbled to himself before taking a sip of his tea.

He had just bent back down over the hieroglyphics when another sound came from out among the shelves.

"Hello?" he called, thinking it was perhaps his son come to force him to retire for the night. "Joseph is that you?" He stood and walked to the door.

There was no reply.

Just as Walsh turned to return to work a gust of wind swept through the room and blew out all of the candles engulfing the office in darkness.

"What on earth?" Walsh asked himself as he moved to retrieve his wand from his pocket. But before he could something slammed him back against the wall his wand forced from his hand and thrown to the floor.

There was a mutter in the dark and the candles were re-lit, illuminating the room in a soft glow. Walsh gasped as a hooded figure stood not a metre in front of him. They were tall and decidedly masculine if the broad shoulders and large hands were anything to go by.

"What do you want?" Walsh asked fear making his voice shake and his body tremble.

"Myrddin's Book, where is it?" he barked, pressing his wand against Walsh's throat. He gulped, forcing air into his lungs as he felt the wand dig into his windpipe.

"Where is the book?"the man growled, pushing him so hard against the wall that books were knocked from their perches and fell to the floor.

"I don't know what you're talking about!"he cried almost gagging as the wand began to crush his windpipe.

"Don't. Lie." The man growled again before removing his wand and pointing it at Walsh's chest. "Crucio!" Walsh screamed as pain ripped through his body. He felt as though a thousand knives were digging into his flesh, as white hot pain flashed behind his eyes. Walsh thought he was going to pass out from the pain when suddenly it stopped. The man looked him in the eyes before leaning down to punch him in the stomach. Walsh's eyes watered and his knees shook as he lost his breath.

"Now I'll ask again. Where is Myrddin's book?"

"Please I beg you, I don't know!" Walsh cried, his voice raw from screaming.

"_Crucio_."

Walsh screamed again.

"Tell me!" the man yelled shaking Walsh's limp body before shoving him back against the wall. Walsh coughed as he felt blood trickle passed his lips. He spat at the man.

The man wiped his face and sneered at Walsh. "You shouldn't have done that," the man whispered before once again cursing Walsh, only this time the pain was far worse. "You _will_ tell me, and I'll let you die. If you don't, well you'll die anyway but it won't be anywhere near as fast."

Walsh chuckled, his white lips stretching over his blood stained teeth. "I do not fear death." The man punched him and Walsh felt his nose crunch as more blood poured from his face. "Did I hit a nerve?" Walsh asked smiling.


	2. Harry's Time Travelling Headache

**Minor edits in this chapter, please review :)**

**I do not own Harry Potter anything you may recognise is the work of JKRowling.**

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Harry Potter was considered by his neighbours as an unusual man. At just nineteen years old he was living away from home and seemed to have a steady job. And while most of his neighbours saw him in jeans, there was the odd occasion where he would come walking up the street in a sort of dress spouting some nonsense about fireplaces being overcrowded.

He was frequently visited by a young woman with fiery red hair and the pair were often spotted in the nearby park. She was deemed to be his girlfriend after the pair were spotted snogging in the street late at night. He was however, most often seen with another young man also with red hair (he was believed to be the brother of the young woman) and he was often joined by yet another young woman, only this one had bushy brown hair and seemed to be dating the red headed man.

This however was not what Harry Potter unusual (he was after all an attractive, outgoing young man so it was no surprise to anyone that he had a girlfriend and close friends). It was in fact the conundrum of which of the houses Mr Potter in fact lived in. All of Harry's neighbours had at some point or another asked him which house he lived in, to which Harry always replied which a laugh and a smile;

"I live in Number 12 of course."

And that very fact was what made him so unusual, because Number 12 didn't exist, everyone knew that, but he did live somewhere on the street. He'd been to community watch meetings and everything. So yes Harry Potter was an unusual man, it was just his neighbours didn't know how unusual.

oOoOoOo

Harry threw his head back as he took his second round of Panadol for the night. He gulped down his glass of water, leaning on the counter in the basement kitchen of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. He had lived in the building for almost an entire year now and while Ginny stayed with him for the weekends he was charged with Teddy (and occasionally during the week when she didn't have Quidditch practise the next day), he was still adjusting to the fact that he had the entire house to himself. It had after all been the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix and residents to most of the Weasley's the summer before Harry's fifth year.

Harry shook his head to clear the stray thoughts from his head. He'd been up for half the night studying for an Auror exam that he and Ron were to take in three days to try and officially get into The Department of Magical Law Enforcement (because apparently catching Death Eaters for two years only counted as practical application and he still have to pass the theory side of their 'program').

Harry rubbed his eyes and yawned. He wondered if Ron was up as late as he was, or if he'd gone to bed already to help open Weasley's Wizard Wheezes in the morning. Harry looked at his watch; _10:53._ Harry chuckled to himself knowing exactly what Ron would be doing. Even if he only had to go downstairs in the morning to open, there was no way Ron would be up now studying.

"Harry?"

Harry turned around to see Ginny coming in through the doorway.

"What are you doing still up?" he asked as she made herself a glass of water.

"I wasn't, I fell asleep reading a book and I just woke up. You weren't there so I decided to see what you were doing and grab a drink," Ginny replied before draining the glass. "What about you, still studying?"

"Yeah but I think I've hit the point where my brain has just melted into goo and I've reread the same sentence about a dozen times."

"Oh? Then maybe I could…distract you," whispered Ginny seductively as she wrapped her hands around Harry's waist and pulled him close.

"And what would this distraction involve exactly?" asked Harry his voice low.

"Well…" She whispered the rest in his ears and Harry's eyes widened at her proposal. Harry learned down and kissed Ginny hard on the mouth, he could feel her chest vibrating as she giggled into the kiss. Harry moved his hands to her hips getting lower and lower before;

"Bloody hell Harry! That's my sister!"

Harry and Ginny jumped apart at the intrusion.

"Ron?" asked Harry confused as to why his best friend was now standing in his kitchen. Ron was wearing his pyjama bottoms and a grey sweater (Harry had obviously been right in guessing what his best friend had been up to), his hands were covering his eyes.

"You two are disgusting," commented Ron peeking between his fingers to make sure they'd stopped.

"Well we weren't exactly expecting you!" exclaimed Ginny, her face red. "What are you doing here anyway and how did you know we were down here?"

"I wasn't expecting me either! I was minding my own business asleep in my bed when Hermione sends me a message to get you two and meet her in Kingsley's office, and as usual I get no explanation as to why she wants me to do it. Then I flooed in and I could hear you two in the kitchen so I came in here and walked in on…that…" Ron explained.

"What does Kingsley want us?" asked Harry.

"I don't know, I just said that!"

"Alright, alright keep our shirt on. Let us get dress and we'll go."

oOoOoOo

Harry, Ron and Ginny emerged from the fireplace directly into Kingsley's office. It was a large room with portraits of the previous Ministers- much like the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts- lining the walls. The dark floorboards shone orange as they reflected the light from the fire behind them.

This however wasn't the first thing Harry noticed when he stepped out of the fireplace. He had after all been in Kingsley's office on a number of occasions following the end of the war and Kingsley's permanent appointment as the Minister of Magic. No, the first thing that caught Harry's attention was the heavily pregnant woman who was crying her eyes out at Kingsley's desk. The second thing he noticed was the bushy haired woman that was comforting her.

"Hermione!" Ron called as he walked towards his girlfriend. Hermione shot him a look that obviously meant '_yes I did see you come in, there's no need to shout_' which Ron, in turn, completely ignored.

The third thing Harry noticed while this was all occurring was Kinglsey sitting behind his desk, his fingers crossed in front him almost like he was praying. _It's nothing good then_ Harry thought to himself.

"Harry, Ron, Ginny," welcomed Kingsley as the trio took their seats around the desk. "This is Mrs Darvill, she's here to report her husband as missing."

"No offence or anything but couldn't this wait until morning? It doesn't exactly have anything to do with us," said Ron as he stifled a yawn. This was obviously not what the crying woman-Mrs Darvill wanted to hear because she promptly started to sob harder.

"_Ron!"_ exclaimed Ginny who was now helping Hermione to comfort the sobbing Mrs Darvill.

"No…no…it's fine…" she said inbetween sobs. She conjured herself a handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes, smudging her mascara and making her look slightly like a raccoon.

"I've called you all here because Mr Darvill hasn't just gone missing. According to his wife, Anna here," Kinglsey gestured towards Mrs Darvill who now blowing her nose, "he was kidnapped by Death Eaters."

Harry and Ron exchanged a significant look. They'd been chasing after Death Eaters for just over a year now and their numbers had dwindled down to almost nothing but some of the more cunning ones had been evading capture since Voldemort's defeat. In fact there was only one in particular that Harry and Ron wanted to get their hands on.

"Dolohov," said Harry his voice cold.

"That was him! He took my Theodore!" cried Anna her green eyes going wide as she turned to Harry. "Yes, him and another man!" she added.

"Mrs Dar-"

"Anna"

"Anna, do you know what he took your husband for?" asked Harry. Anna averted her eyes.

"He-he was a Death Eater," she said after a moment's hesitation. "But I swear he didn't want to be, his father made him join, Theo wasn't even at Hogwarts for the final battle!" she pleaded looking Harry in the eyes.

"If he was a deserter then that would give Dolohov a reason to go after him, he is an extremist," said Ron looking from Anna to Kinglsey who nodded.

"From what Anna here has told us, Theodore was a healer and was posted at St Mungo's during Voldemort's rein."

"But that doesn't explain why he would want him now," interjected Ginny.

"That is correct Ms Weasley which is why earlier this evening when Anna stopped Hermione on her way out of the Ministry we sent Aurors to Dolohov's last known location which Anna provided," explained Kingsley.

"And what did they find?" asked Harry. He knew he wasn't going to like the answer. He could tell from the dark look on Kingsley's face.

"Papers, plans and a date, the 6th of August 1995 to be exact. The plans detailed of a plot for Dolohov and two others to go back in time and warn Voldemort of his defeat."

"What so Dolohov, wrote down his entire plan on a piece of parchment and hoped no one would find it?" asked Ron incredulously.

"No, h-he was corresponding with m-my husband. He threatened us, said he's murder our baby if Theodore didn't help him," answered Anna once again blowing her nose.

"But why August, why 1995?" asked Ginny.

"Because that was just after Voldemort came back, if he wants to change the outcome of the war so why not go back to when the second war started?" answered Harry.

Ron swore, "So he went back in time to save Voldemort? Why would he do that? I mean, the slimy bastard took off as soon as he worked out Voldemort was going to lose the last battle, he wasn't exactly loyal," he added incredulously.

"No, but he never struck me as the kind of man that wanted anything other than power, and what does he care if Voldemort wins in the process? With the information he would have on not only us but the other Death Eaters as well, he would be a very valuable asset for Voldemort to have," countered Kingsley.

"Well then what are we doing about it?" Ron asked glancing around the room as Harry pinched the bridge of his nose; his headache was coming back except now it not only included a psychotic Death Eater but time travel as well.

"Well that's where yourself, Harry and of course Hermione come in" Harry and Ron glanced at each other than back to Hermione.

"Obviously, you two are going to follow him" she said, answering their unspoken question.

_Well this just keeps getting better and better_ thought Harry.

"What about me?" asked Ginny frowning.

"You'll be helping me," answered Hermione. "While the boys go back to 1995, we'll be here looking more into what Dolohov was planning. According the Aurors there were scores of different plans in his hideout and Harry and Ron will need all the information they can get."

"Do we know how they went back in time? I doubt a time turner would work even if we hadn't destroyed them all," questioned Harry as Anna nodded dabbing her eyes one last time.

"Yes, Dolohov said something about a potion. I'm a potioneer so I looked into it the first time he mentioned it. It was in an old book, I'm sorry I never saw the title. It was some kind of Displacement Potion that sort of drags you into the past, then you take Replacement Potion to put you back in the time you belong to. That's when the changes you made in the past come into effect," explained Anna.

"I still don't understand, what kind of Book has a section on time travel?" asked Ginny.

"There's only one," said Kingsley. "There is a book that was said to be written by Merlin himself, under his Welsh name Myrddin. Most people believe that it's a myth-"

"But let me guess," said Ron. "That myth has gone missing."

"Yes, I was informed earlier this morning that the Library had been broken into, its keeper murdered and the book stolen," answered Kinglsey grimly.

"What Library?" asked Harry.

"It's location is a secret, only the Head of each country knows where it is, but it houses the biggest collection of literature and artefacts in the Northern Hemisphere," answered Ginny.

Hermione nodded before adding, "Dolohov must have discovered its location when Voldemort was in power." She gestured to the notes in front of her. "From what our sources have been able to tell us Dolohov managed to find a potion that sent himself and two others back to 1995. The good news is Dolohov was in Azkaban at the time so he doesn't know where to find Voldemort, the bad news is- "

"It won't take long for him to find him" Harry finished.

"Or be found" added Ron "and he happens to be a smart Death Eater, honestly how many Death Eaters can you think of that would do something like this? I mean he knows a lot about the Order –not to mention Snape."

"Like I said he will be a very valuable asset to Voldemort should they come into contact," said Kingsley. Harry frowned and walked towards the fire staring into the flames that he and Ron had emerged from not ten minutes before.  
"What's the matter Harry?" Hermione asked gently placing her hand on his shoulder.

Harry gave a bitter laugh, "What's the matter? Not only are we going back in time to try and catch one of the most vicious Death Eaters we have ever come across, but seeing the Order as well, because there is no way that we will be able to avoid them-" Harry trailed off taking a breath as he turned to face the other three people in the room. "I-It's just, going back, seeing Sirius and Remus and Tonks-"

"and Fred" added Ron

"and Fred, I don't think I would be able to handle saying goodbye again or not without telling them what will happen" Harry finished, his eyes sliding to the floor. He looked up and was surprised to see not only Hermione but Kingsley smiling.

"Well that is what I was trying to tell you before" she took a deep breath "You can change it, I've been doing some research and according to my books there are only three things that are constant and un-avoidable with time; births, bondings through marriage or otherwise and natural deaths."

She was about to go on when Ron interrupted again, "And how many people do we know who have died a natural death?"  
Hermione frowned and smacked him lightly on the arm for interrupting.

"You see everything that happens inbetween can be changed. So in theory you can tell them and stop it from happening" she finished watching as both Ron and Harry's looks of confusion turned into wide smiles as she explained.

"So they won't die and they'll be here when we get back?" Harry asked the hope of seeing Sirius as well as the others alive and well shining in his eyes, a look that was reflected in Ron's as he no doubt though of his brother.

"Provided nothing else happens, from what I've read, yes".


	3. One, Two, Three

**I do not own Harry Potter, anything you may recognise is the work of JKRowling**

**Please Review :)**

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Ron couldn't believe he was doing this, well being the best friend of Harry Potter he could, but that didn't really stop it from being unbelievable. After they had worked out most of the arrangements, Hermione had sent them home to get ready, Harry no doubt was in the process of snogging Ginny's brains out while he still had the chance. So it was in the second bedroom to the flat above WWW that Ron found himself packing for his and Harry's latest adventure. Ron snorted at the thought as he added the last few items of clothing into the rucksack he was taking with him only half an hour from going back in time.

"Ron, I need you t-" George cut himself off, frowning as he watched Ron stuff a sweater into his rucksack. "What are you doing?" he asked.

Ron looked up from his packing. He'd been trying to avoid George in the hopes he wouldn't have to explain to his brother, but apparently luck wasn't on his side today.

"You don't know packing when you see it?"

"Alright I know _what_ you're doing, what I want to know is _why_?" replied George crossing his arms over his chest.

"I'm staying at Hermione's for a while," answered Ron, not meeting his brother's eyes. It wasn't that he didn't want to say what was happening. It was that he didn't want to mention Fred. His death had hit his twin hard and Ron didn't want to give George any kind of false hope. After all, while Hermione had told them even if they could change the future, there wasn't any guarantee that everyone would be here when they got back.

"You just got back from Hermione's! Ron I need you to help run the shop!" cried George as he flopped down on the bed.

"I know, I know! Look me and Harry have a lead on Dolohov," sighed Ron.

"What? Where is he?"

"In the past."

"In the past?" George shook his head in disbelief. "Ron come on just tell me where you're going."

"No I mean it, he made some Displacement potion and is using it to rewrite history."

"Merlin, you're serious?" asked George, his eyes bugging.

"Yeah, we're leaving as soon as we're packed."

"Merlin," George scrubbed his hands down his face before dragging them back up through his hair.

"Yeah that was my reaction," replied Ron as he zipped up the rucksack.

"Wait," said George suddenly staring up at his brother. "Are you going to see them in the past?"

"Them?"

"Everyone."

"Yes…" Ron hesitated, he didn't want to do this. "We're going to change what happened."

George's eyes bugged again as he looked at his brother in disbelief. "You mean?"

"Maybe, just because we warn them about one thing doesn't mean something else won't happen," warned Ron. George nodded solemnly.

"Just do me a favour then?" said George as he stood and moved towards the door. He turned to look back at his little brother. "Break it to them-us-whatever just do it gently, like make sure we're sitting down or something and for Merlin's sake don't let Mum be there when you do." He added before Ron could reply George left the room.

"I'm pretty sure that's more than one favour," grumbled Ron, heaving the rucksack over his shoulder.

oOoOoOo

He arrived back at Kingsley's office to find Harry talking quietly to Ginny in a corner while Hermione, Anna and Kingsley were going over last minute preparations. Hermione looked up while he dusted himself off she smiled and beckoned him as well as the others over.

"Okay, so now that you are both here, I guess we can get started." She said looking between them "Once you get there you will need to go straight to Dumbledore and explain what happened-"

"That's kind of obvious 'Mione" Ron said with a smile before dodging as she tried to smack his head.

"As I was saying" she began again glaring at Ron which cause both Harry and Ginny to snicker "You should end up at Hogwarts. We decided it'd be better than just having you turn up at Grimmauld Place, Moody would blast you both before asking questions."

"And as much as I miss the old codger, I like having all my bits," nodded Harry.

"Anyway," interupted Kingsley as Ron snickered. "Once you get to Dumbledore you'll need to tell him everything-"

"How will he know it's them though?" asked Ginny frowning.

"It's Dumbledore, I won't be surprised if he already knows we're coming," said Harry shrugging, he'd never managed to work out most of the stuff Dumbledore did.

"Right, but just in case think of something he'd know that only you would know," suggested Hermione.

"Okay so we take the potion, end up somewhere in Hogwarts, find Dumbledore and tell him what's happening," recited Ron counting each event off on his fingers. "Then what?"

"We go to Grimmauld Place and tell the Order," said Harry.

Hermione nodded, "If you arrive when I think you will, it should be just after Harry arrives. Everyone's going to be there so you may want to brace yourselves," she continued looking at Harry who she suspected still blamed himself for Sirius death. Of course Ron knew she was right but he wouldn't tell her that, it was Harry's business and Harry wouldn't believe anyone who said otherwise unless it was Sirius himself, which Ron was counting on.

"Right so what do you want us to do?" Harry suddenly asked, changing the subject before it got too gloomy. It was Kingsley who answered.

"Anna has managed to brew the Displacement and Replacement potions, and I've got something that you can use to keep in contact with us." Kingsley picked up a blank piece of parchment and handed it to Harry.

"Is that…?" asked Ginny looking warily at the parchment in Harry's hand.

"Based on the idea of Tom Riddle's diary…yes" replied Hermione picking up another piece of identical square of parchment from Kingsley's desk. "We'll be able to send each other information by writing on it, only unlike the diary it's perfectly safe and won't suck out your soul," she added confidently.

"I'll leave it for Harry to write on then…" replied Ron as Harry gave an uneasy chuckle.

"Oh you two it's perfectly safe! I cast the spell myself," said Hermione exasperatedly. "You two need to get going." Hermione turned and gave Harry a tight hug while Ginny did the same to Ron. She then turned back to Ron and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Be careful, and don't get into too much trouble" she whispered. Ron bent down and kissed her lightly on the lips.

"We'll be back soon" he said pulling away and saw Harry embracing his sister. Anna handed them both two vials of liquid one green and one purple.

"The green one is the Displacement potion it'll get you where you need to go, but I must warn you, it tastes terrible," she said handing both men a vial with a think green liquid in it. "The purple one is the Replacement potion. We don't know if Dolohov was planning on coming back or if my husband will be able to return. So takes these two vials and use them on Dolohov. I know he's got at least one other man with him from the conversations I overheard but if you send those two forward in time my husband will be safe with you and your Order." Anna pressed her hands together in a prayer. Harry nodded and tucked his and Ron's vials into his mole skin pouch that was once again hanging around his neck.

Harry and Ron each gave Hermione and Ginny a goodbye kiss before grabbing their rucksacks and unplugging the green vials.

"And Harry?" called Anna just as the cork pulled free.

"Yes?"

"Bring him back to me. Bring my Theodore home."

Harry looked her in the eye and nodded. Ron swallowed and tried not to think about the fact he was about to enter what was for all intents and purposes; a war zone.

"On the count of three," said Ron holding the vial up as if he was giving a toast.

"One," Harry clinked the vials together carefully so they would spill.

"Two," added Ron holding the vial up to his lips.

"Three." They swallowed.


	4. Between a Hard Place and Vertiaserum

**I decided that I really didn't like how this chapter went originally, it was way too OOC so i decided to rewrite it and now I like it so much better, I hope you guys do too! **

**I do not own Harry Potter anything you may recognise is the work of JKRowling. The spell Dumbledore uses isn't from Harry Potter I just used Google to translate 'enchanted sleep' into Latin. Please review!**

* * *

As soon as the liquid touched the back of Harry's throat he felt like gaging, the stuff tasted worse than Hermione's cooking had back when they were on the run. The room around him was spinning and morphing so fast that it made his limbs tingle and his head spin. Colours flew past blurring and bleeding into each other like some kind of abstract art. Harry closed his eyes so he wouldn't throw up and the last thing he saw was Ron do the same. Then it stopped. The ground beneath him shifted and heard them land on the ground with a thud. He opened his eyes and looked around the first thing that registered in his mind was that they were in the entry way of Dumbledore's office.

"Where did you come from?" exclaimed the Gargoyle that stood before them. Harry thanked whoever was listening that the Gargoyle didn't seem to recognise him, not that Harry had had a tremendous amount to encounters with it.

"Er…from around the corner, you weren't looking when we came up," said Ron quickly.

"I think I'd remember-" Harry cut the gargoyle off;

"Is Dumbledore in?"

The Gargoyle glared at them suspiciously.

"Who wants to know?" Harry gulped and looked at Ron who shrugged. This obviously wasn't part of their plan, but when did their plans ever work anyway? Harry opened his mouth, not entirely sure what he was going to say when

"You know, most people who attempt to break into my office will at least try a few of my previous passwords first."

Harry froze at the same second he saw Ron go ridged beside him. Why had Hermione decided that Hogwarts was the best place to leave them? Surely Grimmauld Place would have been just as easy, but then Harry thought of suddenly appearing in a room with Mad-Eye Moody and decided that he was more likely to keep his head in this situation, if only because Dumbledore preferred to ask questions first.

"Now if you would be so kind as to turn around, I'd like to know who's so desperate to meet with me." Harry wasn't fooled by Dumbledore's pleasant tone, leading people into a false sense of security was one of Dumbledore's many talents and was something that Harry had witnessed more than once. It was one of the things that made dealing with Dumbledore dangerous.

Harry caught Ron's eye as they turned and nodded ever so slightly. Ron quirked the corner of his mouth to let Harry know he'd gotten the message, _go quietly_. If Dumbledore decided they weren't a threat to the school then they would at least get the chance to talk to him. If he decided they were then well, they were screwed.

"I think he knows we're here," whispered Ron.

"You think?" Harry whispered back sarcastically.

Dumbledore's eyes narrowed as they swept over Harry and Ron, probably taking in every detail and cross referencing it with what he knew about fifteen year old Harry and Ron and seeing if they matched up. Harry gulped as Dumbledore drew his wand and had to fight his reflexes not to reach for his own, obviously Dumbledore had noticed that they weren't quite fifteen anymore.

"Cantata Somnis," was the last thing Harry heard before his eyes drooped and he felt his body go lax and hit the floor. The last thing he thought however, besides how much hitting the stone floor hurt, was that at that very moment facing Moody seemed to be the safer option.

oOoOoOo

When Harry awoke the first thing he noticed, besides his throbbing head, was that he was sitting in Dumbledore's office. The second thing he noticed was that his limbs were stuck to the chair.

"Ah good, you're awake," said Dumbledore as he moved to stand on Harry's right. He was holding a teapot and quietly filled one of the teacups that were sitting in front of them on the desk. Harry didn't really know what he was supposed to say, the last time he'd been in this office was to talk to Dumbledore's painting just after the war. Now he was in the same office about to talk to a very much alive Dumbledore in 1995. Harry shook his head and turned his head to look at Ron beside him. The other man was still out cold, his head lolling against his chest.

"What did you do to us?" he asked trying to remember the spell Dumbledore had used.

"It was just an ordinary sleeping charm, your friend should be awake any moment now." Dumbledore had now moved around to the other side of the desk and filled the second cup before taking his seat. His blue eyes locked on to Harry's, like he was trying to read his mind but Harry couldn't feel the tell-tale push to his mind.

"Perhaps you would like a drink while we wait," continued Dumbledore as he gestured to the cup closest to Harry. Harry eyed the cup suspiciously but was saved from answering by Ron beginning to stir.

"What the bloody hell happened?" he asked frowning and blinking his eyes open. Harry watched as the blood drained out of Ron's face as he began to realise their predicament.

"You tried to break into my office," answered Dumbledore as he leaned forward in his seat.

"Obviously we didn't think this through enough," added Harry as Ron nodded in agreement.

"I was just offering your companion here a cup of tea, perhaps you would like one as well?" asked Dumbledore, eyeing Harry and Ron with interest. Ron eyed the innocent looking teacup in front of him with distrust.

"It's laced with Vertiaserum isn't it?"

"Perhaps."

"We don't have anything to hide, you can ask us anything."

"If you don't have anything to hide than you have no reason not to drink it," countered Dumbledore pleasantly. Harry reached forward, only his arms and upper torso were able to move from the seat, and took the teacup.

"Just drink it Ron," said Harry as he took a mouthful of tea.

"Your name is Ron Weasley?" asked Dumbledore as Ron drank his tea, nodding as he swallowed. Dumbledore turned to Harry "And your name is?"

"Harry James Potter."

Dumbledore's eyebrow quirked but he still didn't look convinced.

"You don't believe us?" asked Harry.

"It isn't possible to lie while under Vertiaserum, however if you were to believe you were in fact Harry Potter and Ron Weasley without actually being so, then you would of course not be lying," explained Dumbledore.

"Then how are we meant to prove we are who we say we are?" asked Ron frowning.

"While you were both unconscious I preformed several revealing spells, all of which had no effect. There are only two possible options remaining, you are either who you say you are or you have used a Polyjuice Potion."

"Polyjuice only works for an hour though."

"Yes and Vertiaserum lasts for roughly the same amount of time, so all I need to is wait and in the meantime ask questions, which brings me to my first, what are you doing here?"

Harry glanced at Ron before answering, wondering where in their complicated story he should begin.

"I believe the beginning is always the best choice," said Dumbledore, as if he'd read Harry's mind.

"The beginning isn't as straightforward as you would think," replied Harry. It felt decidedly strange facing Dumbledore and having all of the information, Harry couldn't even think of another time it had happened except perhaps whenever Harry had seen something in Voldemort's head. He just hoped that this would be a more pleasant experience. "I suppose this all started with the defeat of Voldemort," he added noting the look of extreme interest on Dumbledore's face.

"Was it you that defeated him?"

"Yes, but you already knew that it'd have to be me sir," replied Harry as he glared at the man behind the desk. If Dumbeldore was surprised with Harry's resentment he didn't say anything, instead motioned for Harry to get back to his story. "Okay, so Voldemort was defeated and the remaining Death Eaters were taken into custody and sent to Azkaban, but some of them got away. A few months after the war ended Ron and I were approached by the Auror Department and asked if we wanted to join and help them catch the last thirty or so Death Eaters that weren't in prison or currently on trial."

"And you both said yes?"

"We did," answered Ron this time. "It felt weird sitting at home not doing anything. I mean we could have gone back to school but Hogwarts was closed for the rest of the school year for repairs."

Dumbledore frowned but didn't say anything. Harry continued;

"So anyway we spent a year learning to track and take down Death Eaters, we practically completed the entire Auror training course in that time. Then just about a month before the anniversary of the last battle, the Auror Office started getting in rumours that Dolohov had finally come out of hiding-"

"And of course we both have a bone to pick with him," interrupted Ron.

"And why is that?" asked Dumbledore his curiosity getting the better of him for the minute.

Harry swallowed the lump in his throat, "He killed Remus during the final battle," he answered quietly.

"I'm sorry to hear that, he is a good man," replied Dumbledore.

Harry nodded, "When we heard that he'd been spotted we volunteered to track him. The Head Auror of our time Robards wasn't very keen to let us but eventually he gave us permission."

"And you've been after him ever since," finished Dumbledore as both Harry and Ron nodded.

"He's tricky and went back underground when he got wind that we were tracking him. We pretty much spent the months after that studying the theoretical side of being an Auror until yesterday morning." Harry then went onto explain their meeting with Mrs Darvill and the kidnapping of her husband.

"But you don't know what his plan was once he got himself here?" asked Dumbledore frowning. It was a strange plan and not even he could work out what Dolohov could possibly gain from accomplishing his goal whether it be warning Voldemort of his destruction or something far worse.

"No and we have limited options to where we can start looking. We're still waiting from more information from Hermione in the future," added Ron.

"So Miss Granger stayed in your time, was there a reason for that?" asked Dumbledore, who was further intrigued with the Trio's decision to split.

"She's the brains of the operation," answered Harry. "We need her back in our time to send us clues about Dolohov's plan and as competent as Hermione is with her wand, she's not an Auror." Dumbledore nodded conceding their point.

"I expect you'll need a place to stay until you've figured that out?" asked Dumbledore.

"You believe us then?" asked Ron leaning forward and almost tumbling to the floor when he discovered he was no long stuck to his chair.

"It's been well over an hour Mr Weasley," replied Dumbledore smiling slightly. It was good to know that Ron hadn't lost much of his personality

"A place to stay would be great if it isn't too much trouble for the Order," nodded Harry.

"Of course not, I believe you'll have some useful information for us," replied Dumbledore, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly as Harry and Ron blanched.

"How did you know we were changing the future?" asked Ron looking perplexed.

"Ron my boy, I know the laws of time. I know what you can change and what you can't. My question is, how are you going to do it?" Dumbledore looked them both in the eye. "What information are you able to reveal and what are you not? You yourself Harry must know there are things your fifteen year old self cannot know."

"You mean the fact that I'm a Horcrux?" asked Harry waspishly, his eyebrow raised. "You're right, I can't know that until the last possible moment, otherwise my sacrifice won't work. But there are things that fifteen year old me should know. Like the fact that I was seeing into Voldemort's mind while I slept and you're going to ignore me for an entire year oh and there's a bloody prophecy written about me" he retorted.

"He's never exactly forgiven you completely for that Professor," added Ron as he looked sideways at his best friend.

"I can understand why," answered Dumbledore gravely.

"No you don't!" growled Harry his frustration at the time returning to him "Sirius died because I was kept in the dark until it was too late."

"And suppose we did reveal this information to your younger self. You said he's seeing into Voldemort's mind in his sleep, what's to stop Voldemort from getting this information then? What's to stop him from using this information, Sirius would still die."

"It wouldn't be my fault!" yelled Harry. He knew Dumbledore was pushing Harry's limits in order to get him to agree with Dumbledore's original plan, but Harry wasn't going to tolerate it this time around. It was his life and he would deal with the consequences. If Sirius's death still happened then Harry could at least take comfort from the fact that it wasn't his fault any more so than he was responsible for anybody else's that died during the war. No matter what people said it wasn't him they had been fighting for.

Dumbledore sighed as he watched Harry try to calm himself. It was times like this that Dumbledore Lily's temper flare to life in her son. It saddened the Professor that after years of being compared to his father Harry would never really know how much like his mother he really was.

"I don't know," Harry finally admitted after he'd managed to calm down.

"I'm sorry Harry, but until you can find a way of preventing Voldemort from discovering what the prophecy entails your younger self must be kept in the dark."

"But what about the rest of it? Harry told us that Voldemort didn't know about Harry seeing into his mind until Da-" Ron cut himself off.

"Until what Mr Weasley?" asked Dumbledore leaning forward intently.

"My dad was attacked by Nagini, just before Christmas." Ron admitted slowly. "But if that's true and Harry is dreaming about things he shouldn't know about he needs to know. He needs to know the possibility of what could happen."

"And what happened?" asked Dumbledore quietly looking from Ron to Harry. Harry sighed, messaged his temples and answered;

"Voldemort discovered I could see into his mind after Mr Weasley was attacked. I saw it happen and the Order was able to get to him in time." Harry took a deep breath and continued. "I was dreaming about a hallway, I kept getting a door and was trying to get inside but I couldn't. Voldemort was trying to get into the Hall of Prophecies but he couldn't do it, the Order had it too well guarded. So he decided that I'd be able to do it."

"He planted a vision of Sirius in my head. Kreacher was helping Bellatrix and Narcissa and told me Sirius had been captured when I tried to check on him." Harry had a lump in his throat but he ignored it. "In the vision he was torturing Sirius for information in the Hall of Prophecies and being the idiot I am I went after him. We got there and I found the prophecy but we'd already walked into the trap. Sirius died-"

"And that is why you believe you are responsible for his death," finished Dumbledore, Harry nodded.

Dumbledore stroked his beard as he considered his options. On the one hand if Voldemort learnt that he had access to Harry's mind, then the results could be catastrophic for the Order's war efforts. On the other hand this future Harry was still suffering for what being kept in the dark had resulted in. If he could spare Harry just this once then he would do it.

"Very well, you can tell Harry what his dreams mean, warn him about the dangers that these dreams present, _but_, under no circumstances are either of you to reveal to him what the prophecy contains. Is that understood?" said Dumbldore.

"Yes sir," both young men chimed.

"Now what are we going to do about the Order?" asked Ron. "Mum will chuck a fit if we just turn up and Moody'll hex us to dust before we even make it out of the floo!" he exclaimed.

"I'll make sure they know you're coming. I'll prepare them and then send you a message to come through," replied Dumbledore. He stood and walked to the fireplace.

"Make sure all of us kids are there too, they need to know what's happening as well," added Harry.

"Very well," nodded Dumbledore. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting to call into order." And with that Dumbledore disappeared in a sparkle of green flames.


	5. Boredom and Freak Outs

**Sorry about the long wait...**

**Before I get into the chapter I had a review addressing my ideas about time travel and the plot. Unfortunately the comment came from a guest so i can't reply personally, so I decided to put my reply here: (no offence meant if "for god sake" or "Hell" are swear words to you)**

**This story has been going for a couple of years now so no, its not 'sloppy' I have been thinking about this concept for ages.  
1\. I made up my form of time travel but its based off the Dr Who episode Big Bang, so no the future is not magically erased, events are changed and the people it effects remember both ways  
2\. No I don't see time as a loop I watch too much Dr Who to consider it a loop, as I said only three things are fixed or predetermined  
3\. Since when do fix it story have to be worst case scenario fixes? I've read stories where Harry has gone back in time just because he feels like it. It's fan fic for god sake I can write what I want. If you don't like it don't read it it's that simple.  
said anything about faking deaths, in fact I do believe I implied people will still die. How the hell would you know what Dolohov's objective is? All I've told anyone so far is half a plan recounted by a hysterical pregnant woman.**

**So...the main thing to take away from that (and sorry if I sounded a bit angry/arrogant but it really annoyed me at the time) is please don't flame, and if you're going to don't flame about the plot you have no idea about, honestly people it's fan fiction and I do this for fun, so as most writers say If you don't like it, don't read it!**

**Anyway, thanks for all of the other reviews and sorry about how long this took to get up...**

* * *

Sirius Black was bored, the Order was crowded into his kitchen waiting on Dumbledore to arrive so they could start their meeting. Snape had taken it upon himself to inform them of the latest Death Eater activities while they were waiting (apparently he'd already informed Dumbledore) but all Sirius was really getting out of it was _blah blah blah_. He'd actually surprised himself with the level of attention he was giving this particular part of the meeting considering it was Snape who was talking. Not that he didn't listen to the meetings, it was just that, well, it was Snape. Sirius couldn't help thinking that he would much rather be upstairs with his godson, Harry, who had just been shoved upstairs by Molly not ten minutes ago. Sirius looked around the room at the other Order members who were present for the meeting wondering if they were just as bored as he was.

Molly was bustling around the table, getting it ready for dinner. She was half listening to the conversation and half reciting a list of ingredients she needed for tonight's soup. Bill was talking quietly with Arthur and while they weren't exactly ignoring Snape Sirius was sure he'd heard something about Goblins and the betting scandal from the Quidditch World Cup the year before. Apparently Ludo Bagman had gone underground and the Goblins were still after him. Sirius hadn't kept up with the story much while he was on the run, he was just glad it wasn't him.

He didn't quite know the relationship between Moody and Snape, but Sirius figured that Moody only trusted Snape because Dumbledore did, and even then, every time they were in the same room Moody would have his good eye trained on Snape for the entire time, _kind of like now_ Sirius thought with a smile. Moody's other eye -the magical blue one- was whizzing around in its socket no doubt keeping a look out for the teenagers upstairs, which, Sirius guessed must have been much more interesting than the meeting he was currently sitting in. At one point Sirius had thought he had seen Moody smile but he blinked and Moody glared at him so Sirius let it go as a figment of his imagination.

Sirius's focus shifted to Kingsley, Hestia and Diggle who were paying rapt attention to Snape as he went on about one thing or another, his eyes lingered on Emmeline who was twirling her long dark brown hair around her index finger. Well, she was until she noticed him staring and turned her attention back to Snape. Sirius watched her as a light dusting of pink covered her cheeks, just like they used to when- Sirius shook his head trying to get rid of the images in his head, he hadn't even been in this house for more than two months and he was already starting to go crazy. He rubbed his eyes and turned to look at his cousin.

Tonks, unlike some of the others looked just as bored as Sirius, though he had to smile when he saw her sneaking looks at Remus when she thought he wasn't looking, and when Sirius glanced at Remus, he nearly burst out laughing when he saw him doing the same thing. He found their crush on each other to be highly amusing but that was mainly due to the colour Remus's face would go when she was the one to catch him staring. Sirius had long since decided that he would keep an eye on them, one so he could tease Moony and two because he thought that they would make a good couple, kind of like opposites. Before Sirius had a chance to continue his analysis he was pulled back into reality by Snape who was now apparently addressing him.

"Are you listening Black? Or is the concept to much for you to handle" Snape said glaring at him annoyance written all over his face. Sirius opened his mouth to counter when Dumbledore arrived through the fireplace.

"Ah, you're all here," Dumbledore said as he took his seat near the head of the table.

"Black was just about to provide us with a recap of the meeting," said Snape as Sirius glared at him.

"Yes actually I was Snape, I believe you were bleeding on about something to do with breaking in the new Death Eater recruits, I'm surprised they let you near them, I would've thought you'd scare them away" Sirius retorted cheerfully.

"Now gentlemen" Dumbledore interrupted before Snape could open his mouth, "Something has been brought to my attention that is more important than a school yard squabble, keep the comments to yourselves," he added looking at the both of them.

"I will if he will" Sirius stated glaring at Snape.

"What is it then?" asked Moody impatiently.

"Time travel," answered Dumbledore.

"W-what do you mean Professor?" asked Molly as she settled a pot full of soup on the table.

"I mean Molly that a small group of Death Eaters have travelled back to our time in order to secure the war in Voldemort's favour."

"Does that mean we won?" asked Remus looking hopeful for an end to the war.

"I believe so," replied Dumbledore smiling.

"Then what's happening to stop them, who are they?" growled Moody.

"The current, or should I say future Minister has charged two of his best Aurors with the task of preventing the Death Eaters from reaching their goal," explained Dumbledore. "From what I've been told they are being led by Antonin Dolohov."

Molly gasped, he was the monster that was responsible for her brother's deaths there was no way she was letting her family anywhere near him.

"And who did this Minister send back? I'm assuming it wasn't Fudge, Merlin knows we wouldn't have won with him in charge," said Moody, his magical eye fixed on the fireplace as if he could already see who was about to come through.

"No he is not, however I won't ruin the surprise," answered Dumbledore before turning to Molly. "Could you please fetch the children, it was requested that they be present."

"But what's it got to do with them?" asked Molly, this meeting was no place for children.

"Not to worry my dear, I'm sure the Aurors have a good reason." Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling, Molly didn't like it.

"Alright," she said sounding a bit hesitant. "I'll be back in a moment with them."

"Excellent, I'll let the Aurors know."

oOoOoOo

Harry and Ron were nervous, Dumbledore had only been gone a few minutes but both of their brains were buzzing with 'what ifs'. What if the Order doesn't take them seriously, what if Moody decides to curse them first and ask questions later, what if they faint from seeing their dead family members? The list went on, Luna would probably say that they both had a severe infestation of Wrackspurts, Harry smiled at the thought. He was vaguely aware of Ron pacing behind him, not having been able to stay seated after Dumbledore had left. Harry himself had his knees pressed up against his chest, his heels resting on the edge of his chair. He could see the portraits whispering to each other, actually he could hear them too, because apparently you didn't have to worry about being discrete when you were a painting. It was making him more nervous, especially since the portraits were the biggest gossips in all of Hogwarts.

"How are we going to do this?" asked Ron, breaking Harry from his thoughts.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," said Ron as he nervously wrung his hands, twisting his fingers together. "We're about to see our family, our past family, with our past dead family members." Harry gulped he hadn't been able to bring himself to think about that yet.

"I guess we just talk, try to keep it business like."

Ron snorted, "Yeah, like that'll work."

"Yeah it's not exactly the best plan."

"When are your plans ever the best?"

"Well sorry, "Mr-I'm-A-Strategy-Genius", what's your idea then?"

"I don't know, I'm going a bit mental over here in case you hadn't noticed!" exclaimed Ron throwing his hands up in the air.

Harry quickly turned his gaze on Ron at his sudden exclamation. He was indeed looking a bit mental. His eyes were wide and his fringe was sticking to his forehead. His hands were twisting and untwisting as he paced back and forth.

"Ok calm down, and stop pacing you're making me dizzy."

Ron immediately stopped and dropped into the chair next to Harry. "I just don't know how I'm going to react to seeing them. I mean you were closer to most of them but living with Sirius and Remus for most of this summer made them feel like family," Ron explained.

"I know," replied Harry. He'd thought about what it would be like back in Kingsley's office, but now he was about to see them all again, Harry felt like he was going to be sick. Harry rubbed his eyes under his glasses. "Ok, when Dumbledore calls us in, we tell them what's going on. We answer questions but we don't go into detail tonight, we can talk to people individually if we need to."

Ron nodded in agreement, but before he could add anything a silver phoenix burst into the room. "Bloody Hell!" he exclaimed as it settled in front of them. It opened its beak as if to let out a cry but instead Dumbledore's voice came from the bird;

"I've informed the Order of the situation and the children are being brought to the kitchen as I send this message. I didn't however inform any of them who you are, I'll quite enjoy the surprise."

Ron laughed as the bird faded into silver mist and then disappeared.

"I'm not sure Dumbledore is meant to find this amusing," laughed Harry. And with that they grabbed a handful of floo powder and stepped into Dumbledore's fireplace.

"Number 12 Grimmauld Place," they sated clearly, dropping the powder and disappearing in a flare of green flames.

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**Not 100% what I said it would be but I figured you'd all waited long enough for a chapter. Don't forget to review :)**


	6. Surprise? You're going with surprise?

**I do not own Harry Potter anything you may recognise is the work of JKRowling. The text in bold is dialouge taken from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and is also the property of JKRowling.**

**Please Review :)**

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Molly didn't know what was happening. One minute she was making dinner listening to an Order meeting that in her opinion had nothing to do with children, and then the next Dumbledore was telling her to go and get the children because some Aurors from the future said they wanted to talk to them.

'_Honestly' _she thought '_what could the children possibly have to do with this. A war is no place for children!' _

Molly was half way up the stairs when she heard it. A raised voice and then shouting coming from where she had left Harry. Alarmed Molly rushed to the door way, pausing only when she heard what was being said coming through the crack in the door where it hadn't been closed properly.

"**SO YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN THE MEETINGS, BIG DEAL! YOU'VE STILL BEEN HERE, HAVEN'T YOU? YOU'VE STILL BEEN TOGETHER! ME, I'VE BEEN STUCK AT THE DURSLEYS' FOR A MONTH! AND I'VE HANDLED MORE THAN YOU TWO'VE EVER MANAGED AND DUMBLEDORE KNOWS IT - 'WHO SAVED THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE? WHO GOT RID OF RIDDLE? WHO SAVED BOTH YOUR SKINS FROM THE DEMENTORS?"**

Molly's eyes widened as she listened to Harry's tirade. She could hear Hedwig and Pigwidgeon twittering and flapping about the room. She couldn't hear Ron or Hermione but she supposed that they were shocked into silence just as much as she was.

"**WHO HAD TO GET PAST DRAGONS AND SPHINXES AND EVERY OTHER FOUL THING LAST YEAR? WHO SAW HIM COME BACK? WHO HAD TO ESCAPE FROM HIM? ME!"**

Molly heart ached for the boy on the other side of the door. No child should have to go through what Harry had been through, and yet Harry had endured it time and time again. He was made of stronger stuff than anyone knew, but listening to him now, well everyone had to crack under the pressure at some point didn't they?

"**BUT WHY SHOULD I KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON? WHY SHOULD ANYONE BOTHER TO TELL ME WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING?"**

Harry must have taken a moment to breathe because Molly heard Hermione's meek voice coming from the other side of the door.

"**Harry, we wanted to tell you, we really did – " Hermione began.**

Molly jumped as Harry interrupted Hermione and began shouting again. Molly was quite surprised by the volume Harry could get to and still no reach down into the kitchen. If it did Sirius would have been up here to calm him five minutes ago.

"**CAN'T'VE WANTED TO THAT MUCH, CAN YOU, OR YOU'D HAVE SENT ME AN OWL, BUT DUMBLEDORE MADE YOU SWEAR – "**

"**Well, he did –"**

"**FOUR WEEKS I'VE BEEN STUCK IN PRIVET DRIVE, NICKING PAPERS OUT OF BINS TO TRY AND FIND OUT WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON –"**

"**We wanted to –"**

"**I SUPPOSE YOU'VE BEEN HAVING A REAL LAUGH, HAVEN'T YOU, ALL HOLED UP HERE TOGETHER - " **

"**No, honest –"**

"**Harry, we're really sorry!" said Hermione desperately. "You're absolutely right, Harry - I'd be furious if it was me!"**

There was a lull in the argument and Molly took this as the perfect opportunity to knock. There was a shuffle from the other side, probably the three teenagers making themselves more presentable.

"Come in," called Harry, his voice sounding hoarse to Molly's ears. She pushed the door opened and walked into the room. Hermione's eye were rimmed red with unshed tears, Ron was white faced and wide-eyed while Harry was flushed and still breathing heavily. Molly cleared her throat.

"Dumbledore has asked that you join us for tonight's meeting."

"Why?" Ron asked as he shook himself out of his wide-eyed astonishment.

"It's easier if Dumbledore explains," replied Molly, not wanting to mention time travel or Aurors for fear of sparking excitement in them. "Head downstairs I need to fetch Ginny and the Twins."

Meanwhile…

"Who do you think it'll be?" asked Sirius as he slid into the seat next to Remus. Dumbledore had just left to send his message to the Aurors and now they were just waiting for Molly to return with the teenagers.

"Imagine if it was one of us!" interrupted Tonks excitedly before Remus could answer.

"That would be weird wouldn't it," replied Emmeline from her spot two seats down from Tonks.

"Hey, I was actually talking to Remus ladies," said Sirius indignantly.

"Well now you talking to us too," Emmeline fired back.

Sirius glared at her, she glared back.

"Back to your question Sirius," said Remus, breaking up the glaring contest. "It could honestly be anyone, put the point is finding out what they're doing about Dolohov. He could have already found Voldemort by now."

"True," said Sirius as he leaned back in his seat.

"How do you think we beat him?" asked Tonks suddenly. Sirius and Remus glanced at each other uncomfortably.

"It would to have something to do with Harry wouldn't it?" replied Emmeline frowning.

"Over my dead body," declared Sirius.

It was at this point in the conversation that Molly came back with the teenagers trailing behind her. They looked somewhere between curious and confused about why they were being let into an Order meeting. Harry looked slightly suspicious but his face brightened when he saw Sirius across the room.

"Sirius!" he called and dash around the table to envelope his godfather in a hug.

"Harry, it's great to see you," replied Sirius as he pushed Harry back to get a better look at him. Sirius felt his blood run cold as he looked at the boy in front of him, the light in the room made Harry's green eyes turn hazel and suddenly Sirius found himself a world away looking at his fifteen year old friend.

_James._

James's mouth was moving as if he was trying to say something but to Sirius it felt as if time had slowed down. He shook his head and blinked hard. _This isn't real_ he thought.

"Sirius?" came Harry's voice, effectively breaking the spell.

Sirius blinked harder and Harry's eyes turned green.

"Sirius are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm fine." He answered then noting the strange looks he was getting added, "Sorry, I zoned out for a second, let me look at you."

Harry's gaze flickered to Remus in concern before moving back a step so Sirius could see him. His hair was a mess and his eyes and cheeks were tinged with red as if he'd been yelling or crying. He was taller than Sirius remembered, _he must have had a growth spurt over the summer_ Sirius thought.

"You've gotten taller," he told Harry, poking him in the ribs. Harry's face morph into a smile, the tension from Sirius's episode dissolving as Harry deemed him 'back to normal'.

"You've gotten fatter," replied Harry laughing at the indignant look on Sirius's face.

"Well that's what happens when you recovery is in the hands of Molly Weasley."

The rest of their conversation was cut off as Dumbledore came back into the room, followed by two men. One was slightly taller than the other and wearing a grey woollen jacket while the other's was black leather. They both wore hoods.

"Oh good everyone is here," said Dumbledore as he looked around the room. "Now before we begin," he turned and faced the teenagers, his eyes decidedly not meeting Harry's. "You've been asked to join as for this meeting because the information these two men have given us has a direct impact on all of you-"

"Professor, they're just children. What could it possibly have to do with them?" interrupted Molly as she crossed her arms in her seat. The taller Auror snorted and whispered something to the shorter one that made him snicker in response, _obviously they've heard of Molly's own personal brand of mollycoddling _thought Sirius as he waited for Dumbledore to continue.

"Of course Molly, we will come to that in one moment, but I suppose before we go any further I should introduce, or reintroduce as it were, you all," replied Dumbledore smoothly, his eyes twinkling a hundred miles an hour as he gestured for the two men to step forward.

The two men stepped forward to stand next to Dumbledore, seemingly to steel themselves before they removed their hoods. Their hands came up and their hoods went down to reveal two heads, one with red hair and one with black. Sirius nearly fainted and he heard Molly let out a squeak of protest. It was _Harry _and _Ron_.

"Surprise," they chorused nervously.

oOoOoOo

The Order took their arrival surprisingly well in _Harry's_ opinion. There'd been a lot of gasps and for one panic filled second Moody shifted in his seat, his magical eye fixed on them and his hand resting on his wand, but other than that, there was no mess, no fuss, just total shock filled silence. _Harry's_ heart felt like it was bursting in his chest. His eyes seemed to want to take in every face, but there was only one that he needed to see. Sirius Black was sitting at the other end of the room. Harry wanted to laugh at the look on Sirius's face. His mouth hung open as he stared back at Harry obviously trying to come to terms with what he was seeing. Then Harry remembered how long it had been since he'd seen his godfather and he wanted to cry.

"Surprise?" asked Molly indignantly. "You two time travel and all you can say is surprise!?" she added, her voice raised.

"Come on Mum, the Minister of Magic sent us-" began _Ron_ but Molly cut him off.

"I don't care if Merlin himself sent you!"

"Mum," began _Ron_ but Molly wasn't listening.

"This is no place for either of you,"

"Mum!"

"Aurors or not Dumbledore should-"

"MUM!" _Ron_ yelled finally getting Molly's attention. "We're both twenty and mostly fully trained Aurors, you can't just send us back 'cause you think we're too young," he added crossing his arms defensively. Molly blinked, surprised. Her son never spoke to her like that.

"_Ronald_ is perfectly right Molly, and from what I've been told they are the best men for the job," added Dumbledore. "Now I believe you have news to tell us."

"Right," answered _Harry_ but before he could say anything he was interrupted by Remus.

"Now wait a second, Molly does have a point. Why you? Dumbledore just said you're the best but _Ron _also said you're only mostly trained!"

"Look, we come from a time after the war. Voldemort was defeated but we lost a lot on our side as well. We say we're the best because we've spent the last two and a half years tracking down Death Eaters, so we know what we're doing," answered _Harry_.

"That doesn't answer the question," said Sirius suddenly. He didn't know how he felt about it being Harry and Ron who had come back, in fact the only comfort he could seem to take from it was the proof that Harry would make it through the war.

_Harry _sighed. "All of our training was pretty much on the job. We were supposed to take a test in a few days to cover the theoretical side of things, but at the moment we've got about five years before we need to worry about it."

There was silence as the Order considered the explanation. _Harry _honestly hadn't though it would be this difficult to talk to the Order. He certainly hadn't been expecting to explain himself, all he'd been worried about was Moody jumping the gun and attempting to hex his and Ron's heads off.

"So, you're them?" asked Fred, pointing to Harry and Ron after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence. "What exactly is it like in the future? That's what you came here to change isn't it?" He said to the older versions of his younger brother and friend.

"Yes, we are them" Harry replied as he smiled at Fred's enthusiasm "And as for the future…it's pretty good, Voldemort's gone and there are hardly any Death Eaters left."

"So why change it?" Hermione asked. She was very curious as to the reason they came back. And where was she? Surely she would be with them, or was that why they came back, had something happened to her? Ron saw the look on her face and immediately calmed her.

"Our Hermione is keeping an eye out for any leads for us in the future" he told her and she smiled distinctly relieved. "It's not exactly the entire future we want to change just some events and…deaths…" Ron replied trailing off. Molly's eyes widened as did most of those around the table.

"Who dies?" she asked tears coming to her eyes praying it was no one from her family. She saw both of their faces darken and was afraid to know the answer.

"That my dear is a conversation for another night," replied Dumbledore before either of them could comment. "Tonight is for Harry and Ron to work out where they are in their timeline, and where they will begin their search."

Harry nodded.

"So what was the last exciting thing to happen?" asked Ron. He figured that would be the easiest way to find out exactly when they were. Obviously knowing the date helps but there's only so much you remember from particular days that occurred five years ago.

"I got attacked by Dementors and kicked out of school a couple of days ago," answered Harry. "I only just got here."

_Ron's_ lips quirked as he remembered the spectacular melt down Harry would have just had. He elbowed Harry in the arm, laughing before turning to the young version of his friend.

"How's your voice?" he asked, laughing again as Harry turned red.


	7. A Great and Loud Debate

**I do not own Harry Potter anything you may recognise is the work of JKRowling. **

**So after a brief hiatus I've actually updated...yay! Okay just so we are clear there a a couple of lines of dialogue/descriptions that are directly out of the book. I can go back and put them in bold if you guys want but its kind of distracting to read. Also special mention to Kitty279 who let me have Moody's quote about innocence and ignorance, I'm glad I wrote it down when I did! **

**Please Review and let me know what you think!**

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"What would be wrong with his voice?" asked Sirius looking at Harry.

"Nothing, it's fine," replied Harry grumpily, his foul mood from early beginning to return.

"You were yelling quiet loudly dear," added Molly.

"You heard that?"

Molly nodded, "The door was open," she confessed.

"What were you yelling about?" asked Remus curiously.

"Harry is a bit put out because he hasn't got a clue what's going on," replied _Ron_ cheerfully as both Harry's glared at him.

"Well what do you expect being dumped at the Dursley's for a month with no idea what's going on with Voldemort and only nightmares for company?" asked _Harry _sarcastically.

"Nightmares?" asked Sirius glancing at Harry worriedly. The younger version of his godson had turned slightly red as the majority of the room turned to look at him.

"About the graveyard and-" Harry trailed off unable to finish the sentence. Even now he didn't like to talk about what had happened, the window for which he would have done so was closed and all he'd gotten were some consoling letters from Sirius, and even then there's only so much a letter could do to help.

He glanced up at some of the guilty faces around the room, in particularly Dumbledore's, and he couldn't help but feel his anger renew at the injustice of the situation. "Don't tell me you all thought I'd be fine by myself after something like that, not when I needed someone to talk to about it and I don't mean through letters!" Harry continued scathingly. Were they stupid? Sirius had tried to talk to him about it through his letters but it wasn't the same as talking in person, which he had had to wait a month for, for some god forsaken reason.  
Sirius, sensing the boy's distress squeezed his shoulder; it seemed that talk he had promised Harry a month ago was needed sooner rather than later.

"Aye, the boy should have been given some news Dumbledore," agreed Moody. Harry got the feeling that this was a conversation that had occurred multiple times if Moody's tone was anything to go by. He only hoped that Sirius and Remus had not want him kept in the dark as well.

"Yes I will admit that it was wrong of me to bar Harry from some of the information he wanted," Dumbledore said nodding, much to Molly's chagrin, he turned to address not only the younger Harry but also the older one. "I owe you an apology it seems, if I had known how much distress this had caused you, I would have reconsidered letting your friends contact you. You must understand however that at this time owls are not reliable to reach their destination without being intercepted."

"You can't tell me that you don't have any other way of contacting people when you want to Professor," replied _Harry _curtly, while Harry who had been thinking the exact same thing merely nodded his acknowledgement of the apology.

Dumbledore nodded solemnly but didn't comment further.

"Perhaps we should start with Harry's questions then?" asked Emmeline. "He's only just gotten here and if the look on his face told me anything it's that he doesn't know where 'here' is," she added her voice leaving no room for argument. Harry wondered who exactly Emmeline was, she had readily volunteered to rescue him from the Dursley's and was now making sure he got his answers. However just as Harry was about to ask his first question Molly interrupted;

"Before you start dear just let me serve up dinner. I'm sure everyone is starving given all of the excitement."

"Err…right,"

oOoOoOo

Dinner was a slightly awkward affair, well, the start was pretty entertaining from _Harry _and _Ron's _point of view as they took delight at watching their family around them. Most of the Order had elected to stay for dinner rather than leaving to go back to their own homes. They were after all still technically in a meeting, but with two people from the future present nobody was really thinking about Death Eater recruitments at that very minute.

Mundungus was sitting across from Sirius, twirling a silver goblets around with his fingers while he was waiting for Molly to bring out dinner. It was old and a bit tarnished but looking at the thing he thought it could be worth a few galleons cleaned up. He looked up at Sirius who was deep in a conversation with Harry and Remus, no doubt catching up or something like that.  
'Sirius,' said Mundungus, interrupting the end of Sirius's joke. "This solid silver, mate?"  
Sirius snatched the goblet off Mundungus and looked at it frowning. "Yes,it's some of the finest fifteenth-century goblin-wrought silver, embossed with the Black family crest.'

'That'd come orf, though,' muttered Mundungus.  
"You're not pawning off my goblets 'Dung," said Sirius scowling.

"But you don't want the stuff, you've been callin' it junk!" Mundungus exclaimed trying to get the goblet back.

"That doesn't mean that I'm going to let you steal them. You're welcome to take some of the dodgier junk as long as it's not lethal or anything like that, but the goblets and silverware and the other valuable stuff that I actually want, well, you'll find out pretty quickly what happens if you even try to take it," said Sirius threateningly.  
Mundungus gulped but any reply he was about to utter was cut off by Molly suddenly shrieking "NO, JUST CARRY THEM!"

_Harry _and _Ron _who suddenly remembered what happened dove away from the table just in time to see a large cauldron of stew, an iron flagon of Butterbeer and a heavy wooden breadboard, complete with knife, to hurtle through the air towards where Harry, Sirius and Mundungus were sitting. They watched slightly fascinated at seeing the event occur at a different angle as the stew skidded the length of the table and came to a halt just before the end, leaving a long black burn on the wooden surface; the flagon of Butterbeer fell with a crash, spilling its contents everywhere; the bread knife slipped off the board and landed, point down and quivering ominously, exactly where Sirius's right hand had been seconds before.  
Fred and George froze before looking at Sirius, who was examining his right hand.

"FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!" screamed Mrs Weasley. "THERE WAS NO NEED - I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS - JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC NOW…" she trailed off to angry to continue. The Twins nodded still looking at Sirius not really listening to their mother at all.  
"We are so sorry Sirius, we didn't mean it," they said eyes wide.  
"Don't worry about it," Sirius told them smiling shakily.

"Besides, it wouldn't be the first time someone has thrown a knife at him," added Remus cheerfully. Snape smiled to himself _that had been a good day_ he thought.

"What do you mean?" asked Harry curious. Sirius turned red and muttered something about a bad break up, draining some of the tension from the room.

Molly fumed silently as she vanished the spilt Butterbeer and moved the stew pot back into the middle of the table. "Just because you can use magic now doesn't mean you need to whip your wands out for every little thing!" she exclaimed after a minute. "None of your brothers caused this sort of trouble!' Mrs Weasley raged at the twins as she slammed a fresh flagon of Butterbeer onto the table, and spilling almost as much again. 'Bill didn't feel the need to Apparate every few feet! Charlie didn't charm everything he met! Percy -" Molly froze, her eyes flickering towards her husband.

"It's fine Molly," he said woodenly. "They've apologised and everything is fine."

"What happened with Percy?" Harry whispered to Ron. He didn't answer and instead gave Harry a look that said 'I'll tell you later'.

oOoOoOo

Dinner passed with no further fan fair and after a few minutes people began picking up their conversations where they had left off. _Harry _and _Ron _had summoneda piece of parchment and a quill and were now bent over it whispering to each other before writing something down. Hermione had been watching them as Ron quietly caught Harry up on what had happened with Percy, carefully making sure neither of his parents could hear him.

"What are you doing?" asked Hermione the two men across the table.

"Writing a list," answered _Harry_ looking up from the parchment he had just finished scribbling on.

"I can see that," replied Hermione drawing the attention of the rest of the table. "But what's it a list of?" she added.

"Oh, uh it's just a list of things we want to talk to people about, so we don't forget."

"And," Hermione peeked at the list, "a locket is something you need to talk about?" she asked sceptically.

_Harry _glanced down at the parchment where he had written 'locket' and underlined it. His gaze then shifted to _Ron _before settling back on Hermione at which point both men simply answered;

"Yes."

_Harry _and _Ron _went back to whispering things to each other and scribbling on the parchment. It wasn't until a few minutes later they felt everyone else's expectant gaze on them as well. _Ron_ cleared his throat uncomfortably while _Harry_, who had almost ten years' worth of experience with people staring at him, sighed and put the quill down.

"Are you going to start this conversation or not?" he asked Dumbledore.

"My boy, you're the one with all of the information. I'm afraid that their questions can only be answered by you," Dumbledore replied smiling.

"You don't need me to tell mini me where he is, you can do that on your own," _Harry _replied waspishly, not liking the fact that Dumbledore was still trying to push him.

"What do you mean no one has told him where he is?" exclaimed Sirius.

"No, nobody told me anything!" exclaimed Harry, then to himself 'shouldn't be surprised…when does that ever happen anyway…' he fumed under his breath so no one could hear him. Unfortunately Remus, who could hear exactly what the boy was grumbling shot Sirius a look, who in turn poked Harry in the ribs. This caused him to stop before he could get too worked up about the situation and instead turned his attention to glaring at his godfather for poking him. Harry sighed. "They told me an address to get me in I suppose," shrugged Harry. "But other than being at Number 12 Grimmauld Place I don't actually know where I am."

Sirius nodded "This was my parents' house," he explained, "But I'm the last Black left, so it's mine now. I offered it to Dumbledore for Headquarters - about the only useful thing I've been able to do."

Remus grimaced; he knew Sirius hated the feeling of being useless; it had been the same during the first war. Only he was able to be out in the open, taking the Death Eaters head on, whereas this time, he couldn't really do anything.

"And a fine guard dog you make Black," commented Snape smirking.

"Shut it Snape," Sirius growled but he made no further comment, his attention now fixed on Harry who seemed to now be bursting with questions.

"And what exactly is the Order of the Phoenix?"

"A secret society that was set up by Dumbledore during the first war against You-Know-Who," answered Emmeline before Sirius or anyone else could.

"Who's in it?" asked Harry, his curiosity and need to finally get some answers taking over.

"Everyone here who is of age." this time it was Remus who replied. "Your parents were of course in the original Order," he added proudly.

"They were?"

"Of course, we joined right out of Hogwarts," answered Sirius. Harry nodded seemingly satisfied with this answer for the minute, he could always come back to it when it was just him, Sirius and Remus in the room and not the entire Order.

"What about Voldemort?" asked Harry ignoring the various flinches around the room. "What's happening? What's he up to? Where is he? What are we doing to stop him?" he added quickly.

"Harry that's not something you children should be worrying about," said Molly quickly before any other members could say otherwise. Unfortunately for her, Hermione and Ron had decided almost telepathically that they didn't want Harry to begin shouting again, so in spite of Molly attempting to veto the subject Hermione answered;

"Well we don't know the details but we've got a general idea," she said no looking at any of the adults, who were looking at each other with surprise. Obviously the teenagers weren't as in the dark as they thought.

"They've been sending a lot of time trying to recruit people, Bill's keeping an eye on the Goblins, Professor Lupin is trying to convince the Werewolves and Professor Snape is acting as a double agent for Dumbledore," Hermione listed.

"They're always talking about guard duty or something as well, we don't know what for though," added Ron. The Order was once again surprised at how much the teenagers actually knew.

"Couldn't have been me, could it?" said Harry sarcastically.

"Not quite," commented _Ron_ but was silent when his mother glared at him. The trio glanced at each other, knowing they were thinking the same thing, _if they weren't guarding just Harry, what else could it possibly be?_

"Alright so you know a little bit more than we thought but that doesn't mean everything that you've guessed is right," said Sirius.

"Sirius they aren't in the Order!" scolded Molly.

"Since when do you have to be in the Order to ask questions? Harry's been out of the loop for a month and now he has questions and I'll be damned sure that he gets answers," Sirius retorted.

"Are you going to let this happen?" _Ron _whispered in _Harry's _ear.

"If they don't then they'll be at each other's throats for the entire time we're here. Besides your Mum needs to know that Sirius is my guardian, he gets final say not her," _Harry _answered. _Ron _nodded knowing how right _Harry _was even if the situation probably wasn't the best way to fix it.

"Why does Harry get answers? We've been asking for ages and he's not even of age!" yelled Fred outraged.

"What you are told or not is up to your parents, Harry on the other hand is up to me," replied Sirius calmly.

"Harry isn't in the Order Sirius, it's not up to you to decide what he's told, or have you forgotten what Dumbledore told you?" Molly argued waspishly.

"Which bit?" Sirius growled in reply. It was at this point that many of the other people in the room were wondering why Dumbledore wasn't doing anything to stop Molly and Sirius. He was just sitting there quietly watching them both. They also noticed that _Harry _and _Ron _were doing the same. Perhaps they were waiting for something.

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew this wasn't going to end well and there wasn't a thing he could do to stop it. Sirius and Molly had been clashing at almost every Order meeting since it was reformed, he could only hope that nothing too damaging was said and nobody got hurt but he wasn't going to hold his breath.  
"The bit about not telling Harry more than he needs to know," said Mrs Weasley, placing a heavy emphasis on the last three words.  
"Well then, that's nearly everything isn't it," muttered Harry to himself, he was getting sick of everybody trying to keep him in the dark about everything.  
'I don't intend to tell him more than he needs to know, Molly,' said Sirius. 'But as he was the one who saw Voldemort come back' (again, there was a collective shudder around the table at the name) 'he has more right than most to - '

"He is not a member of the Order!" repeated Molly.

"That doesn't really seem to matter though does it?" questioned Moody, he was one of the few members of the Order that wanted to tell the younger ones what was going on, if only to prepare them should something happen in the future, which, seeing as the way the war were going, was highly likely.  
'And he's dealt with as much as most in the Order,' said Sirius, 'and more than some.'

'No one's denying what he's done!' said Mrs Weasley, her voice rising, her fists trembling on the arms of her chair. 'But he's still - '

'He's not a child!' said Sirius impatiently.

'He's not an adult either!' said Mrs Weasley, the colour rising in her cheeks. 'He's not James, Sirius!'  
The room was silent. The colour had drained out of Sirius's face and he felt his body become sort of numb, as he tried to stop the flashes of memories from pulling him under.

"Of course I know he's not James!" Sirius yelled angrily, Molly glared at him and before anyone could stop her,

"Oh, really? Because the way you act around him suggests otherwise," she retorted.

"James is dead," Sirius said flatly, "So don't you dare bring him into this and don't you dare tell me I don't know the difference between my best friend and my godson," he growled.  
'What's wrong with Sirius wanting me to have answers?' asked Harry.

"What's wrong, Harry, is that you are still at school and adults responsible for you should not forget it!" said Mrs Weasley, her eyes still boring into Sirius.

'Meaning I'm an irresponsible godfather?' demanded Sirius, his voice rising. He didn't need Molly Weasley to tell him that he was a bad godfather, he already knew that, but it hurt and made him angry to hear somebody else imply it.  
'Meaning you have been known to act rashly, Sirius, which is why Dumbledore keeps reminding you to stay at home and - '

'We'll leave my instructions from Dumbledore out of this, if you please!' said Sirius loudly.

"I believe that this is something that _Harry _wished to speak with Sirius privately about," cut in Dumbledore agreeing with Sirius.

Molly gasped, "Professor, how can you allow this, they're only children!"

"Because that kind of thinking got us into a lot of trouble the first time Mum, and Dumbledore agrees with us," replied_ Ron_.

"And by privately I mean Harry, Ron, Hermione, Sirius and Remus," added _Harry_.

"Why us?" asked Ron confused.

"Because I know that as soon as younger me gets told what I'm going to tell him he'll freak out, stew for a bit and then tell you everything the first time you ask," answered _Harry _winking at his younger self who flushed.

"Things have changed Molly, even before _Harry _and _Ron _got here, the attack from the Dementor's changed the situation and I have accepted the fact that Harry will have to be filled in on important information now that he is here."  
"Yes, but there's a difference between that and inviting him to ask whatever he likes!" said Molly scowling.

"Molly this isn't your decision," said Emmeline, her eyes cold.

"He's just a child, he doesn't need to know about any of this!" Molly argued again.

"Innocence and ignorance isn't going to protect him from a megalomaniac, psychopathic mass murderer," countered Moody.

Molly was quiet for a minute before she drew herself up to her full height. "Well I can see I'm out numbered and therefore overruled, but speaking as someone with Harry's best interests at heart-" she began but she was then interrupted by Sirius who had seemed to have calmed down slightly at the thought of so many of the others backing him up;  
"He's not your son."

'He's as good as,' said Molly fiercely. 'Who else has he got?'

'He's got me!'

'Yes,' said Molly, her lip curling, 'the thing is, it's been rather difficult for you to look after him while you've been locked up in Azkaban, hasn't it?'  
Sirius stood abruptly, glaring at Molly. He was furious beyond words and hurt beyond belief that she would bring up his second greatest failing.

"Molly you are not the only person in this rooms that cares about Harry," said Remus sharply. "Sirius sit down!" he added.

But without a word Sirius instead stalked out of the room slamming the door behind him and disappearing up the staircase.

"Molly that was cruel and unnecessary," said Remus with his head in his hands not looking at her.

_Harry_ stood as well; glad that the argument was over. Hearing what Molly had said for the second time was not easy, but this time he was able to see that she had only said it out of a sense of love. After all, hadn't he been just as cruel to Remus when he had tried to run away from Tonks and Teddy?

"Mrs Weasley, can you please come with me?" _Harry_ asked indicating the stairs where Sirius had just left. Molly bit her lip but nodded, following _Harry_ around the table to the door.

"_Ron_," he said looking back over his shoulder, "Can you send mini-me in about half an hour?" he asked. _Ron_ nodded and with that _Harry_ and Molly disappeared up the stairs.


	8. Truce and Truth

**I do not own Harry Potter and anything you may recognise is the work of JKRowling. Just a heads up guys there is a discussion about physical and mental abuse in the second half of this chapter, there isn't anything graphic though.**

**Please Review!**

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_Harry_ climbed the stairs with Molly silently trailing behind him- he had no idea what he was going to say to the both of them- but first he had to find Sirius. He came to a stop at the entrance way and turned to Molly,

"Can you wait in the drawing room while I go find Sirius?" he asked. Molly nodded and he turned to go up the stairs when she stopped him,

"_Harry_ I-" she started but he cut her off.

"I know your sorry Mrs Weasley, but it's not really me you need to apologise to," and with that he left her at the bottom of the stairs, a sad understanding etched on her usually kind face.

_Harry_ knew exactly where Sirius was hiding, the same place he had spent his time moping around the first time. He stopped at Sirius's mother's bedroom door which was slightly ajar. Sirius was not going to get away with spending the entire time feeling sorry for himself. He, _Harry,_ would make Sirius snap out of it, even if he had to hang him upside down by the ankle to do it. He gently pushed the door open and looked around the room.

Buckbeak had raised his head and _Harry_ bowed deeply before entering further into the room. It looked as though the room was empty, but just as he made to leave to look elsewhere; _Harry_ heard movement coming from under the bed.

He got down on all fours and lifted up the dusty covers peering under the bed. He was met by a pair of eyes that gleamed in the sudden light. _Harry _smiled.

"I didn't think you were one for hiding under beds," he said as he climbed under to lie next to the big black dog. Padfoot let out a short growl which seemed to _Harry_ to say 'I'm not hiding'.

He laughed "Then why are you under the bed?" Padfoot nudged _Harry_ in the shoulder with his nose and let out another, softer growl. They lay there in comfortable silence for what seemed like an eternity before _Harry_ spoke again, this time though he was quite serious.

"You didn't fail me," he said taking a deep breath. Padfoot made a kind of disbelieving noise but _Harry_ cut him off, "No I mean it, you were angry and in pain from the loss of your best friends and the betrayal of another, but that didn't stop you from making sure that I got to Dumbledore safely. Remus told me how much you loved that bike of yours but you gave it up in an instant to get me to safety. That isn't failure."

He was rambling but he didn't care. This was something that he needed to say as much as Sirius needed to hear it. "Then in my third year you broke out of prison for me, something that nobody else has ever done, well, without help anyway. Then you somehow managed to swim all the way into shore and get all the way to Hogwarts without being seen just because I was in danger. That isn't failure either. That makes you probably the best godfather in the history of godfathers," _Harry_ laughed again as he felt Padfoot's chest swell next to him.

"But you are reckless and you are irresponsible. Don't look at me like that, I've seen the Elvendork incident," he added when Padfoot huffed and shot him a look. "What was I saying? Oh yeah, just because you are reckless and irresponsible sometimes doesn't make you a bad godfather, it just means you are still learning, and I've never told you this but…" he trailed off and Padfoot moved a bit closer, "You're like a father, a brother and an uncle all rolled into one…and you mean the world to me," _Harry_ was almost whispering now, trying to keep his voice level and the tears out of his eyes, he had never gotten the chance to tell Sirius how much he meant to him and now that he had that chance he wasn't going to hold back.

"Do you really mean that?" Came a soft voice next to him making him jump, Harry had been so lost in his thoughts he had completely missed Sirius transform. Harry smiled and gave the man next to him the closest thing to a hug one could possibly get under a bed,

"I'll always mean it Padfoot," he murmured. He pulled back and looked Sirius in the eye, "So are you going to stay up here and mope? Or are you going to go downstairs and talk with Molly?" Harry asked sliding out from under the bed. He heard a great sigh from under the bed then, Sirius slid out as well.

"I guess we should head downstairs then," Sirius smiled.

oOoOoOo

They say that hindsight is twenty-twenty, in fact, if you were to look the word up in a dictionary you would find it described as: the ability to understand after something has happened, what should have been done or what caused the event. Molly knew what she said was wrong, that she never should have said those things out loud to Sirius but Molly couldn't help but believe she was right. She'd been watching Sirius closely since Dumbledore had announced that Harry would be joining them at Grimmauld Place. She'd seen the excited flicker in his eyes that the mention of his godson, but she'd also see the shadow that crossed his eyes when he thought no one was watching. Azkaban still had a firm hold on Sirius Black and she wasn't going to let his internal fight bring harm to Harry. It was with these thoughts running through her head that _Harry_ and Sirius found her when they entered to room and joined her by the fire some fifteen minutes later.

_Harry_ cleared his throat to capture both Molly's and Sirius's attention, clearly hoping that one of them would start talking without his assistance. But as they both sat in awkward silence _Harry_ realised, as he had upstairs, that he would have to be the one to start.

"Okay so, silence wasn't what I had in mind when I dragged you both in here, so I am going to say one thing and one thing only," _Harry_ said looking between the two adults on the two arm chairs opposite him. "You two, are some of the most important people in my life, Molly you took me under your wing that very first day at Kings Cross Station and have been filling in the role of my mother figure ever since. Sirius, like I said upstairs, you are the closest thing I have to a father as well as one of my last connections to my parents and you are both extremely important to me," He smiled at each of them in turn, taking a deep breath before saying the words that he had never really said to either of them before, "I love you, both of you, but you need to understand that in order for you to take care of me, and I mean the me downstairs right now, you need to work together and stop fighting over nothing," he finished, leaving them to make the next move.

"I-I just wanted to apologise, for what I said to you tonight Sirius-" Molly said looking up from her hands to look Sirius in the eye.

"You don't need to apologise, Molly, I know you didn't mean it," Sirius interrupted her but she shook him off.

"Please let me finish," she said her brow creasing as she thought of what she was going to say next. "I'm sorry for all of those awful things I said, I never should have brought up Azkaban and Remus was right when he said it was cruel." She said looking down at her hands again, not quiet having the courage to look at the expressions passing over his face as she spoke.

"I forgive you Molly, but I can't forgive you for what you said about me seeing Harry as James," both Molly and _Harry_ gave him a confused look, but Sirius couldn't bring himself to look at either one, especially _Harry._ "I can't forgive you because sometimes I think you're right and it scares me. I don't know if it's an after effect of Azkaban or just me losing my mind, but sometimes when I look at Harry I see flashes of James," Sirius said slowly.

_Harry_ was gobsmacked, it was true then, he knew he looked extraordinarily like his father but for Sirius to see his father instead of him, he didn't know what to say.

Sirius looked up and seeing the shocked and distressed look on _Harry's_ face he quickly added, "But I know it's you _Harry_, and the feeling I get is gone as soon as I hear your voice or see your eyes and it makes me feel so ashamed but I can't make it stop and I want it to so much," Sirius took another deep breath and continued. "It's gotten to the point where sometimes it's not even you, it could be Remus or even Emmeline just saying something." The distressed look was gone now, but Sirius could still see the shocked look on both their faces and before he could do anything Molly had enveloped both of them in a tight hug.

"I am so sorry that you have to go through that, you are a good man and you don't deserve it. But your right, it does sound like an after effect from the Dementors. After all, your happy memories would be coming back, so it would be only natural that you will be confused for a while," Molly said kindly as she pulled back from the hug. "And I will still apologise for bringing it up in the first place. Hearing horrible things like that won't help," she added.

_Harry_ smiled, Molly's explanation of Sirius's problem had calmed his mind and put him at ease; it wasn't Sirius's fault and explained some of Sirius's behaviour.

"I'm sorry Harry, I didn't want to tell you, and I wanted to deal with it on my own-" Sirius told _Harry_ his hands on the younger man's shoulders as he looked into his eyes, wanting _Harry_ to understand.

"No it's fine, don't worry about it," _Harry_ said hugging the man again. "Just tell mini-me okay, I had a lot of issues this year about the whole identity thing," _Harry_ told him, not really sure how to put what he was talking about into words. Sirius smiled again and nodded, happy that _Harry_ didn't hate him.

"So while it's just us, what's going on between Remus and Tonks?" asked Sirius changing the subject after a few minutes of silence.

"It's…complicated," replied_ Harry, _a sad smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Why has he made it complicated?" asked Sirius, guessing that the only problem with the match was in Remus's head.

"Honestly Sirius, since when has love ever been straight forward," chided Molly rolling her eyes as Sirius pouted at _Harry_.

"I know that!" Sirius exclaimed. "But Tonks doesn't strike me as someone that would hold back, so any complications have to be coming from Remus" he added looking back to _Harry._

"You'll just have to bring it up with Remus then," replied _Harry_ vaguely, trying to keep the excitement and sorrow out of his voice.

"You leave that poor man alone Sirius Black, he'll come to it in his own time," scolded Molly before Sirius could answer.

After that, there was a distinct lull in the conversation as they sat there by the fire. However, after five minutes or so the silence was interrupted by a knock at the door. _Harry_ rose and opened the door revealing his fifteen year old self.

"It's been forty minutes, _Ron_ told me to wait an extra ten," Harry said looking further into the room at Molly and Sirius, as if checking to make sure they were both still alive. _Harry_ led his younger self over to the fire where Molly and Sirius were surprisingly -considering the two seconds that _Harry_ had been gone, though unsurprisingly as it was Molly and Sirius- in the middle of an argument, thought it seemed calmer than an actual argument.

"I'm just saying Molly, James and Lily left me in charge of Harry's welfare," said Sirius.

"I understand that, Sirius, but it's not just Harry that I'm worried about. Who is looking after _you_?" Molly replied earnestly. "Let me help look after both of you."

"Alright," he nodded, "but you have to understand that when it comes down to any decision that needs to be made about Harry, the final decision will be made by me. However, I will take your advice into consideration. You've raised seven children, Molly and I'm still learning so I would be stupid not to listen to you," Sirius said, his tone serious but flooded with gratitude and a small amount of excitement at the prospect of having someone actually looking after him like his mother should have.

"I understand, and I'm glad that you are willing to let me continue to be a part of Harry's upbringing," Molly said with a smile.

To say Harry was shocked would be an understatement, apparently when you put Sirius Black and Molly Weasley together in a room, bloodshed was not the end result. Oddly enough they had reached an understanding and their argument was actually quite civil. _Harry_ laughed at his younger self's confusion before beckoning Molly towards him as she finished her conversation with Sirius.

"Your next guest, Mr Padfoot," _Harry_ laughed with a bow as Harry took a seat across from Sirius next to the fire. Sirius laughed,

"Thanks _Harry_," he said looking at _Harry_ before turning to look at his younger looking godson, who was fiddling with a loose tread on his jumper.

_Harry_ and Molly moved towards the door, no longer having a reason to be there. _Harry,_ because this was a conversation he had already had with Ron and Hermione, and Molly, because she didn't think that Harry would feel comfortable talking openly with her in the room. _Harry_ turned towards Sirius,

"I'll send in Remus, I'm sure he'll be close by, he's probably hiding from Tonks or something," _Harry_ told him with a cheeky smile. Molly smiled as well, she was thankful that at least some good had come from that awful argument.

"It seems as though since _Harry _and _Ron's_ arrival I have gained more family to take care of," Molly said laughing once at the development. "Yourself, and Remus of course," she added at Sirius's confused look.

"And they'll need some looking after," smiled _Harry._

"Yes," Molly agreed, "You're both much to thin, thinner than Harry, I sometimes think," said Molly added as she and _Harry_ left the room. Sirius shook his head at her comment though he couldn't hide his surprise or happiness that she considered him like family, especially since they had been ready to rip each other's heads off not half an hour ago.

Sirius sighed. Now was the hard part, keeping his promise to _Harry_. So as they sat there waiting for Remus, Sirius told Harry everything, the flashes of memories, the feelings that were being dragged up from places he didn't know still existed, then finally he came to the part of the story that he had told Molly and _Harry_.

"So, do you actually think I'm my dad?" Harry asked cautiously.

"No, I know it's you, I always know it's you. It's just sometimes when you brush your hair out of your face or turn your head a certain way, I can't help but see _James_." Sirius replied.

Harry didn't know what to say, he understood that it wasn't Sirius's fault but he didn't know how he really felt about it, he wasn't angry but he wasn't fine with it either, he was confused. Harry was saved from answering by Remus who was looking slightly flushed. He came over and sat down next to Sirius on the other arm chair opposite Harry.

"Sorry I'm late, _Ron _caught me on the stairs as everyone went to bed," said Remus bringing an end to Harry and Sirius's previous conversation. Sirius had guessed that Harry wasn't quite sure how to react to what he had just told him; he was however, grateful that Harry had taken it fairly well and so he allowed Remus to move the conversation forward, they would talk about it more later, when Harry was ready.

"Oh? What did he want?" asked Sirius surprised.

Remus frowned, "He said to look at Harry's neck and to ask about what happens when you're with the Dursley's.

Harry gulped.

"Harry will you tell us what happned?" asked Remus kindly, speaking slowly like Harry would bolt at any second.

Harry bit his lip. "When Mundungus apperated I pulled my wand out. My Uncle saw and he…" Harry trailed off, then added quietly, "he grabbed me around the throat."

"He did WHAT!" cried Sirius. He knelt down in front of Harry as Harry pulled his collar down to reveal almost completely faded hand marks.

"Harry, why didn't you tell us?" asked Remus in shock. Harry looked down to avoid his and Sirius's gaze, afraid of what he would see there. He hated pity. He couldn't do anything with it, pity wouldn't change anything and that, in his opinion, made it completely useless.

"Well it's not exactly something that comes up in normal conversation is it?" he mumbled softly.

"Well no, but that doesn't mean that it's not something you needed to hide either," countered Sirius.  
"I guess you want me to tell you the rest of it then?" asked Harry.

"Only if you want to."

"Yes, but Harry you have to be completely honest with us alright?" asked Remus. Harry hesitated, it would cost him something to tell the truth and it wasn't something that Harry wanted to talk about, but as he looked at Sirius, he nodded. Sirius had gone out on a limb and told him the truth about what was happening with him, so Harry decided that if Sirius could do it, then so could he.

Remus took a deep breath, bracing himself for the question that had been worrying since _Ron_ had stopped him on the stairs,

"_Ron_ also mentioned something about the Dursely's trying to squashing the magic out of you. What did he mean?" Remus asked looking Harry in the eye.

"Not what you're thinking," Harry said, breaking eye contact with Remus to look down at his hands.

"Harry, he tried to choke you, that's abuse! How can that not be what he meant?" asked Sirius, gently lifting Harry's chin so he would look at them.

"It's not! Please believe me, that was the only time he has ever done anything like this," Harry pleaded gesturing to the faint marks on his neck. "It's rare that the Dursley's ever get physical with me, there were a couple of times where I was thrown out of a room or Marge hit me in the legs with her walking stick, and Aunt Petunia swung a frying pan at my head-"

"A frying pan to your head!" yelled Sirius

"It was only once, and I ducked," said Harry attempting to calm his godfather down.

"That's not the point Harry," growled Remus.

"I know, but my point is, the Dursley's aren't big on physical violence, they're too 'normal' to be associated with it," said Harry quickly now trying to calm them both down.

"So what did he mean then?" asked Sirius impatiently he believed Harry when he said it wasn't physical, but something was happening and he would be damned if he wasn't going to get to the bottom of this.

"They…" This was the hard part, Harry decided. Letting them in enough to tell them things that only one other person knew, the last of his secrets of his well hidden life at the Dursley's. He took a deep breath. "They like to make me as miserable as possible, they didn't give me attention or praise and I was punished if I did something 'freakish' like accidental magic. When I was younger the punishment was just being locked in my…" Harry trailed off, should he say it? Should he completely and utterly put his trust in them? He looked at each of their faces, both were covered in worry, sadness, pain and something else, something that he had never ever seen on the Dursley's faces when they looked at him.

Love.

It was then that Harry decided, yes, he could trust them completely with his secrets, just as he knew he could trust Ron and Hermione. He was pulled out of his thoughts as by Sirius's voice,

"Harry?" he asked worry shining in his eyes as he looked at the boy he loved so much in front of him. Harry once again took a deep breath and said the one word that would change everything.

"Cupboard, they would lock me in my cupboard," he said quietly.

Sirius didn't know what to say, he was furious, how could those-those people, lock his precious godson in a bloody cupboard? He was so close to getting up and yelling, screaming obscenities at the Dursley's for everything they had ever done to Harry, but he stopped himself. Harry had put his trust in them just as Sirius had done with him not ten minutes ago. He breathed deeply out of his nose before asking,

"A cupboard?"

"I slept in a cupboard, until I was eleven and got my Hogwarts letter," Harry said with tears in his eyes, the old hurt returning for just a moment. Remus gently wiped the tears away and pulled him into a hug. Sirius on the other hand pinched the bridge of his nose; he would come back to the cupboard later,

"And the punishments when you were older?" Sirius said looking up at Harry as he slid out of Remus's grip and further back onto the couch where he was sitting.

"When I got older, they either locked me in the cupboard or they didn't give me any food, so I had to sneak out in the middle of the night to eat something," Harry answered. "But since I've been at Hogwarts they've been too scared of me to really do anything besides taking away my things or locking me in my room," he added as an afterthought.

"Harry you understand that this is still abuse don't you? Neglect is emotional and mental abuse and is just as hurtful as physical abuse, you know that right?" asked Remus hesitantly, they needed to make sure that Harry understood what the Dursley's did to him was wrong.

"I didn't until I went to Hogwarts and I saw the way that the Weasley's interacted with each other, the way a real family should act," Harry admitted.

"Have you ever spoken to anybody about what has happened in that house?" asked Sirius.

"Ron. I told Ron about it when he and the Twins rescued me in second year, he helped me through a lot of it, but I haven't told Hermione," Harry said quietly.

"Why not?"

"I don't know, I think I'm scared of how she would react. I only told Ron because he saw the cat-flap and the bars on my window in second year, so I didn't have a choice, and he promised he wouldn't say anything to anyone without my permission, even Hermione. I know how much he wants to tell her, I'm just scared…" said Harry trailing off, he honestly didn't know why he didn't tell any of this to Hermione, he thought that maybe it had something to do with the bond that he had developed with Ron over the situation, Ron knew all of his secrets and Harry knew all of his.

"Okay, I think we will leave it there for the night, it's already past midnight, so I think it's time we all got some rest," said Remus glancing at his watch, part of getting Harry to open up to them was obviously to not push Harry too much. They had gotten to the bottom of some of the many issues in Harry's young life tonight, so the rest could wait for another time, preferably during the day rather than the middle of the night.

Sirius nodded before standing and stretching. It had been a long night and he was tired but there was one more thing that he and Harry had to talk about,

"Harry would you mine bunking in with me tonight? I thought we might be able to have that conversation you've been waiting for, you know about what happened in June?" Sirius asked as Harry stood.

Harry smiled and nodded, happy to lose a bit more sleep if it meant finally putting what had happened in the graveyard behind him, and with that all three of them walked out of the room and up the stairs to their respective bedrooms.


	9. You're Harry Potter

**I don't own Harry Potter anything you may recognise is the work of JKRowling. **

**Please review :)**

* * *

Grimmuald Place 8th August 1995

_Harry_ lay awake staring at the ceiling. It was an hour or so before dawn and he was savouring the last few minutes he could spend in bed. There would be a recruitment meeting this morning at Little Hangleton cemetery, the information- courtesy of one reluctant Lucius Malfoy – meant that they had to be ready to leave in just a few hours. _Harry_ half hoped that Dolohov would be there but he knew the chances were slim. If Dolohov was smart he'd keep to the shadows until he had a way to contact Voldemort directly, which of course would mean that crashing the recruitment would be a waste of time but it would help out the Order.

_Harry_ got up and quickly got dressed, shrugging on his leather jacket as he poked _Ron_ awake with his foot.

"Go 'way 'Mione," _Ron_ mumbled as he rolled over.

"_Ron_, get up!" said _Harry_ in the loudest whisper he thought he could get away with.

_Ron_ gasped and sat up. "I just had the weirdest dream that we were in 1995 last night and talking to dead people," he said rubbing his eyes.

"That wasn't a dream," replied _Harry_ as he shoved his sneakers onto his feet.

_Ron_ swore.

"Come on, we've got to go soon."

_Ron_ got up and got dressed grabbing his woollen jacket from the back of the door as he and_ Harry_ left the room to get breakfast.

Upon entering the kitchen the two men spotted Kreacher mopping the floor with what seemed to be a broken mop and a putrid bucket of water. Kreacher looked up as they tried to move past him.

"Who are these new nasty men in Kreacher's Mistress's house?"

"We aren't anybody," replied _Ron_. Sirius hadn't ordered Kreacher to leave yet, but until they were certain of his loyalty _Harry_ and _Ron_ had decided that Kreacher had to be kept in dark as much as possible. _Ron_ knew _Harry_ didn't like it but there wasn't much they could do. Besides having Kreacher welcomed by Bellatrix and Narcissa might play into their favour later.

"One looks like of those filthy blood traitors but Kreacher doesn't know the second," Kreacher muttered to himself as he glared at _Harry_ suspiciously before disappearing from the room, the mop falling to the floor in the process.

"I like him better in the future," grumbled _Ron_ as _Harry_ began to cook some bacon.

oOoOoOo

_Harry_ landed with a thud, his wand at the ready and back pressed against a tombstone as he crouched in the gloom of the graveyard. They'd be scouting the area for any signs of Dolohov when the first of the Death Eaters began to arrive. It was a bit surreal for both men because at this point in their history the Ministry was still refusing to believe that Voldemort was back, yet here were his followers standing around in a Muggle graveyard at six in the morning. It just went to show how little Voldemort had to worry about his followers being spotted.

_Harry_ peered around the tombstone to try and get a better look at what was happening, but he was at the wrong angle. He signalled_ Ron_ who was behind another tomb one plot over and was facing the opposite direction to _Harry_._ Ron_ nodded in understanding and looked out across the plot, then after a few minutes made a series of hand signals that the two of them had perfected over the past year.

Twenty men.

Five Death Eaters, rank unknown.

No sign of Dolohov.

_Harry_ breathed a half sigh of relief, Dolohov had done what _Harry_ had been hoping for and hadn't gone directly to the Death Eaters in the chance that they would just take him to Voldemort. But that had to mean that there was more to the plan than _Harry_ and _Ron_ knew about, they'd have to contact_ Hermione_ later tonight. _Harry_ was pulled from his thoughts has _Ron_ made another signal.

Two Death Eaters coming this way.

He looked across at _Ron_ and nodded, there was no way that they were going to be able to get away without being spotted. _Harry_ braced himself, silently twisting his body into a confident posture, ready to jump up and attack the two men once they had walked past them. If they were lucky they would only have to take down the two of them.

If they weren't, well, they would cross that bridge when they came to it. _Harry_ glanced at _Ron_. He had also shifted his position so he was now crouched facing _Harry_. _Ron_ raised three fingers, a silent count down till they attacked.

Three.

Two.

One.

oOoOoOo

Meanwhile….

Sirius sat at the kitchen table absent-mindedly stirring the cup of tea Molly had placed in front of him just a few minutes before. Most of the Order members had gone back to their respective homes the night before, Arthur had gone to work and the teenagers were still all in bed, leaving Sirius and Remus sitting at the table while Molly bustled around the stove cooking a massive amount of food.

Sirius couldn't quite put his finger on how he felt about Molly now. He hadn't really thought about it at the time, but her sudden change in character was decidedly odd. One minute she was shouting at him that he was pretty much worthless and the next she'd taken him under her wing, he just hoped that this wasn't just some new way to undermine him and keep Harry in the dark.

"So how was Harry last night?" asked Remus, pulling Sirius from the dark direction his thoughts were beginning to turn.

"I think it did him good," replied Sirius nodding. "It was the best night's sleep he's had in a while I think," he added taking a sip of his tea.

"That's good, he looked worse than me before the full moon," said Remus. Sirius snorted at the comment but his reply was interrupted as Molly came out of the kitchen area.

"Right," said Molly as she floated three plates of eggs, bacon and sausages off the stove and out onto the table. "That's breakfast ready, I'll go and get the children." A few minutes later saw the teenagers stagger into the kitchen.

"Good morning," said Sirius as Harry, Ron and Hermione sat down around him and Remus.

"Morning," grumbled Harry.

"Hey where's older Harry and Ron?" asked Fred. Molly shrugged; she had no idea where those two boys were. She had gone to their room to tell them that breakfast was ready to find their beds empty.

"They left early this morning to follow a lead on Dolohov, they'll be back this afternoon sometime," he said as he fingered the piece of parchment he'd pulled from his pocket. "They left me a note on my door," he added at some of the stares around the table, particularly from Remus and Molly.

"What's the lead?" asked Ginny as she pulled apart a piece of toast.

"That's none of your business Ginny," answered Molly sharply, missing her daughter and other children roll their eyes at her answer.

"What are we doing today?" asked Hermione, changing the subject as she poured herself a glass of pumpkin juice.

"Well I was thinking-" began Sirius, before being cut off by Molly.

"Cleaning, I need all of you in the drawing room, it's infested with Doxy's and I've found a nest of dead Puffskeins under the sofa."

"Oh, but I thought-" replied Harry frowning at Sirius, but before he could even finish his sentence Molly had cut him off too.

"I'm sorry Harry dear but it's all hands on deck until we get this place inhabitable, I don't know what that House Elf has been doing for ten years but it wasn't cleaning."

"He's probably a bit too old now Mrs Weasley," said Hermione reproachfully.

"You'd be surprised Hermione," replied Sirius. "Just because he's old doesn't mean he's incompetent."

"Now finish your breakfast and we can get to work," said Molly as she turned and began to wash up.

"I was hoping I could spend some time with you," Harry told Sirius as he moodily poked his eggs.

"Yes, so was I but Molly seems hell bent, it's probably best not to argue," replied Sirius.

"I'm sure you'll have some time this afternoon before the meeting," said Remus watching Harry light up at either the thought of spending time with Sirius or potentially attending an Order meeting.

"Right, time to get cleaning," called Molly after a few minutes as she ushered everyone upstairs. Sirius rolled his eyes at Remus, so much for no more fighting with Molly.

oOoOoOo

"Where are we?" asked _Harry_ as he lay on the ground next to _Ron_. He could see the trees that surrounded them stretching towards the bright blue sky. He could feel the leaves under his body, wet and sticky from what must have been recent rain fall. He could hear the sound of the babbling stream that was flowing steadily somewhere to his left; he could hear the sound of_ Ron's_ heavy breathing as he tried to catch his breath. _Harry_ took this as a good sign, after all if all of his senses were working he couldn't be dead right?

"In the forest, a few miles south-west of the Burrow," said _Ron_ letting out a long breath. "How's your head?" he added shifting his head slightly to look at _Harry_.

_Harry's_ head suddenly throbbed painfully as he tried to remember what had happen. They had taken out the first two Death Eaters quickly but unfortunately, it had not been silently, which in turn caught the attention of the others. He couldn't really remember the rest of the battle; he knew that it was long; after all it had been before six when they had left Grimmauld Place, and now it felt like lunch time.

"Like I got hit by a bludger, what happened?" said _Harry_ as he turned his head to face _Ron_ before wincing in pain.

"When you were duelling, one of them got the drop on you and hit you with a bludgeoning hex from behind, bloody bastard," swore _Ron_.

Now _Harry_ remembered, he had been trying to stop the Death Eater from calling in reinforcements when the spell hit him. He had made it over to _Ron_ but couldn't concentrate enough to apparate, so_ Ron_ must have side-longed him.

"Thanks," said _Harry_, he paused looking at the canopy above them before adding, "Mad-Eye would kill us if he saw us at the moment." _Ron_ laughed before helping Harry to sit up.

"Yeah, but we'll only be here for a few minutes," he tried to reason.

"But you'll have to change my appearance back so you can fix the back of my head," replied _Harry_ frowning. Five minutes later, and a couple of muffling charms later, Harry was looking his normal self and _Ron_ was closing the wound on the back of his head. When _Ron_ was finished _Harry_ turned around and lightly pressed his fingers into the tender flesh.

"You're lucky you don't have a concussion," said _Ron_, vanishing the now red rag he had used to soak up some of the blood from _Harry's_ head, but before _Harry_ could reply;

"You're Harry Potter," came a dreamy voice from across the stream. _Harry_ and_ Ron_ gasped before spinning to face the newcomer, all the while positioning their wands for immediate use. The girl had long blonde hair, grey-blue eyes and radishes hanging from her ears. Harry smiled slightly but was hesitant to lower his wand.

"Luna," he breathed, "how did you get through the wards?" he asked, the real Luna wouldn't have been able to.

"I was already here when you made them," she stated, her eyes drifting towards the tree tops and back.

"Then why didn't we see you?" asked _Ron_ exchanging a glance with Harry.

"I was looking for Crumple-Horned Snorlack's in that tree over there, they like to hide in high places you know," she told them. _Ron_ snorted and lowered his wand, it was definitely Luna.

_Harry_ smiled and lowered his wand as well,

"No Luna I didn't know that," he laughed.


	10. Of Doxy's, Explosions and Newcomers

**Sorry for such a long wait...but the good news is I've got the majority of the next two chapters written already.**

**I do not own Harry Potter, anything you may recognise is the work of JKRowling. I do however own the shield which I made on paint.**

**Please leave a review :)**

* * *

Half an hour later saw Harry and the others in the drawing room, which in Harry's opinion was one of the dustiest rooms he'd ever seen, it clung to the tapestries that decorated the olive green walls and puffed up out of the carpet whenever someone put their foot down and it made him snicker to imagine Aunt Petunia's reaction if she ever came upon such uncleanliness. It was however the long, moss green velvet curtains that caught Harry's attention and that was of course because they were buzzing as though swarming with invisible bees.

Mrs Weasley and the others all had their faces covered with bits of cloth and each held a spray bottle in their hands. She came over and handed a cloth and bottle to Harry.

"Right, now we're going to spray the curtains all together, so don't stop until we've got all of them otherwise we'll have to find a new nest." She said as Harry tied the cloth in a knot at the back of his head. "Harry, Hermione Doxy's bite so be careful that you don't let them get too close."

"Yes Mrs Weasley," they replied as they lined up in front on the curtains.

They had just finished putting the last of the Doxy's in a bucket (although Harry had seen both Fred and George sneak at least four Doxy's into their pockets, no doubt for the joke shop) when Sirius entered the room carrying a blood stained bag.

"Rats," he said in reply to Harry strange look. "I've been up in my mother's old room feeding Buckbeak," he added.

"You keep Buckbeak in your mother's bedroom?" asked Harry incredulously.

Sirius shrugged, "There's nowhere else to keep him, and I never liked my mother."

Harry nodded accepting the strange explanation as Sirius dropped the bag and turned to the writing desk that was by the door.

"Anyway Molly," he began as he crouched down to look at the locked cabinet section of the desk which, Harry noticed was slightly shaking.

"I think it's Boggart," replied Molly as she came to stand next to Sirius.

"I think you're right. Best to let Moody have a shifty at it later though, it could be anything in this place."

"Right you are Sirius."

It was slightly strange, Harry mused watching Sirius and Molly play nice. Sure he's seen them getting along last night but old habits were hard to break and he doubted that either of them were fully committed to playing happy families with one another no matter what had been agreed upon. Harry could probably guess what would happen if Sirius invited him to another Order meeting and it probably wouldn't be pretty.

Suddenly a loud clanging bell sounded from the entry hall, which was at once followed by the screams of Mrs Black "Stains of dishonour, filthy half-breeds, blood traitors, children of filth . . .".

"I keep telling them not to ring the doorbell!' said Sirius exasperatedly, hurrying out of towards the door, but before he left Sirius paused and pulled a piece of parchment from his waist coat. "_Harry _and _Ron_ left this for you this morning, must have slipped it under my door before they left." And with that they heard Sirius thunder down the stairs all the while screaming back at his mother.

"Close the door, please, Harry," said Mrs Weasley.

Harry nodded but took as much time as he thought he could get away with hoping to hear who had arrived. The sudden silence meant that Sirius had obviously dealt with his mother's portrait. Harry could feel Mrs Weasley's eyes on him but just as he was closing the door he heard the deep voice of Kingsley saying

"Hestia's just relieved me, so she's got Moody's Cloak now, thought I'd leave a report for Dumbledore . . ."

"What did Sirius give you mum?" asked Ginny as the others moved towards her no longer wearing masks.

"A note from the boys," she replied as she opened and read the note, a smile coming to her face as she did so.

"What is it?" asked Ron, not liking the grin that now adorned his mother's face.

"Instructions," she said before folding the note back up and putting it in her apron.

"What for?" asked the Twins eyeing their little brother and friend.

"Never you mind, now all of you down to the kitchen, Emmeline should have lunch by now."

oOoOoOo

When Harry and the others arrived in the kitchen it was to find several Order members including Moody, Professor Dumbledore, Tonks, Remus, Kingsley and Snape as well as Mr Weasley and Sirius. They were discussing various things around the table and Emmeline had just brought over a large tray of sandwiches and a pitcher of pumpkin juice.

Harry, who was sitting across from the Twins, leaned forward and whispered, "So those Doxy's in your pockets, what are they for?" George's eyes widened but still he replied,

"We want to see if we can use their venom for our Skiving Snackboxes."

"What's a Skiving Snackbox?" asked Ron, who'd been listening from his spot next to Harry.

Fred sighed, this probably wasn't the best place to be talking about the joke shop, but, in for a Knut in for a Galleon.

"It's a range of sweets that make you ill," he replied a little too loudly.

"What are you lot talking about? What sweets?" came Molly's voice from where she was standing behind the Twins.

"Nothing Mum-" started Fred but Molly interrupted him.

"Don't you nothing me, Fred Weasley, this is about that joke shop again isn't it," she yelled. "I've told you a thousand times it's not a proper job!" she exclaimed.

"Molly now isn't the time to be discussing this," Mr Weasley interrupted before either Molly could continue or Fred could start an argument.

Sirius however, intrigued by the idea of a joke shop chose this moment to start questioning the Twins about it.

"So they make you sick?"

"Yeah," replied George. "Not seriously ill, but enough to get you out of class for the afternoon."

"We've been developing them all summer, they're double ended. The orange end will make you sick and the purple end will restore you to full fitness the moment you've been rushed out of class," added Fred, both boys beaming.

"How can you afford it?" asked Ginny. It was a fairly reasonable question since neither of the Twins jobs.

"Ummm, we have a benefactor," explained George as Harry felt the bottom of his stomach drop.

"Who?" asked Molly harshly. _If those two were up to no good with Merlin knows what kind of shady character from Knockturn Alley, they'll hear about it_ she thought.

"It's me," said Harry speaking up over Fred who had no doubt been about to change the subject.

"You?" asked Sirius gobbed smacked. Harry could feel everyone's eyes on him, especially Ron's. He just hoped his friend wasn't mad at him.

"Yeah I donated my winnings from the Tri-Wizard Tournament last year."

It was at this point that Sirius leaned over and whispered in Harry's ear "I'm proud of you Harry, and I'm sure your parents would be as well." Harry smiled feeling slightly better about the situation, even though he was sure that Mrs Weasley was decidedly not proud of him for assisting her sons in a business plan that she thought was inappropriate.

"Have you found a place yet?" asked Tonks.

"Not yet, but we've got our eye on a place in Diagon Alley," replied George. Arthur sighed, from the sounds of things Molly would just have to accept that the Twins would not be working for the Ministry, she would come around eventually, he just hoped they wouldn't start fighting like Percy and he did because of it.

"That sounds brilliant! Moony, how come we never did anything like that?" exclaimed Sirius who was smiling widely.

"Because Minerva would have murdered us in our sleep, and we had enough fun blowing things up and creating the Map and such," Remus answered.

"Are you kidding, Minnie loves us, she wouldn't do that," he paused wincing at the doubtful look on Remus's face. "Okay so she would have killed us, but that was you who blew stuff up," Sirius laughed.

"You blew stuff up?" asked Tonks in awe, who knew that Remus had been so naughty when he was younger, was it just her or was he even more sexy than he was at breakfast? Remus blushed Weasley red at some of the disbelieving looks around the room.

"All of them blew stuff up," replied Emmeline. "Remus just had a certain flare for it," she added making the majority of the room laugh.

"It was only once, or twice, okay it was three times but the time with the entire bathroom was an accident," he said very quickly before going even redder when Harry, Ron, the Twins, Tonks and Sirius laughed harder.

"So," said Sirius turning to Emmeline, "What did I have a flare for?"

"Well…" Emmeline drew the word out as she leaned forward and batted her eye lids. "You certainly had flare with the ladies," her voice was on the edge of sultry, Sirius gulped.

"Oh yeah?" he asked voice shaky.

"Yes Black, that was until they found out about each other and through a knife at you," interrupted Snape as he smirked at the embarrassed look on Sirius's face and the unimpressed look on Emmeline's.

Suddenly before Sirius even had a chance to think of a comebackSnape lurched forward in his seat, pain coursing through the mark on his left arm.

The Dark Lord was calling him.

"Severus?" questioned Dumbledore as he looked at the younger man. Snape sat back up and rubbed his arm.

"I have to go," he said standing abruptly, not meeting anyone's eyes. Dumbledore nodded but Snape gave no indication he had seen, instead walking right out the door without a backwards glance. The Order had some idea of where he was going, but nobody wanted to say it out loud, even Sirius felt slightly bad for Snape having to deal with Voldemort.

"What was that about?" asked Ginny after a few minutes of silence.

"I suspect he was summoned by old Snakeface," came a voice from the door. _Harry_ and _Ron_ walked into the room both looking a little worse for wear, but not many people were looking at them, they were looking at the blond girl who had followed them in.

"Luna?" asked Ginny.

"Hello Ginny," said Luna dreamily as Ginny hugged her.

"What are you doing here?" asked Ginny moving back to look at her.

"_Harry_ and _Ron_ kidnapped me," stated Luna, moving further into the room, "I knew there was something different about you," she told _Ron_ looking at his younger self. _Ron _laughed and nodded indicating for her to sit down.

"Kidnapped?" asked Molly alarmed.

"With permission, Mr Lovegood thinks Luna is staying with Ginny in London for a few days," replied Harry.

"It was nice of you to tell us you were bringing in a civilian, how do we know we can trust her?" grumbled Moody, his magical eye fixed on Luna who was now seated next to Fred, while his other eye was on _Harry_.

"She's our neighbour," said _Ron_ as _Harry_ added "and a great friend of ours."

"I don't know her," said Harry looking at Luna's vacant expression like he was trying to decide if she was all there or not.

"We meet her this year," _Harry_ told himself.

Dumbledore hadn't said anything since the trio had arrived, his mind preoccupied with Severus's sudden departure. He wasn't exactly worried about Miss Lovegood considering it had been _Harry _who had brought her here so he decided that she must be a valuable asset and friend to Harry in the future. "I would like to welcome you, Miss Lovegood, I hope your father won't be too worried about you," he said kindly. Luna looked at him and blinked, but didn't seem to find it to odd that the Headmaster was addressing her.

"My father knows I'm here, Professor Dumbledore, not that I really know where I am, the Wrackspurts are making everything fuzzy.

"How can she be here and not know where she is?"

"What's a Wrackspurt?" asked Remus and Sirius at the same time.

"It's kind of a long story," said _Harry_ trying not to get blood on the carpet. "But the gist of it is, she knows what building she is in and about the Order of the Phoenix, but she doesn't know where we are exactly, if that makes sense," he said addressing Remus then he turned to Sirius and added "I'm pretty sure Luna will tell you all about them later," Sirius pouted but nodded settling back into his seat.

In the excitement of the arrival of Luna, Molly had almost missed the state of the two young men. Ron's sleeve was slashed and he had blood running down his arm, soaking into the dark robes he was wearing, there were a couple of scorch marks on his pants and he had scratches all over his face. Harry on the other hand, had blood running down the back of his neck and a gash on his left bicep. His face was also covered in scratches as well as dirt.

"What on earth have you two been doing?" cried Molly as the others turned to look at the three of them.

"Err, we may have gotten into a fight while we were checking out a lead this morning," mumbled _Ron_, not really wanting to face the wrath of his mother just after a fight with Death Eaters.

"Take those clothes off now," Molly commanded.

"Mum this is a kitchen not a hospital wing!" protested _Ron._

"That's where you'd be going if I had my way!" Molly exclaimed, "Take those robes and shirts off now."

_Harry _and _Ron_ glanced at each other before hesitantly doing as they were told. There was a collective gasp around the room, as the shirts landed on the table. It was a bit awkward standing around the dining table while people were in the middle of eating, especially since they were undressing in front of people they didn't particularly know very well.

_Harry_ and _Ron_ shifted under the scrutinising gaze of Molly as her eyes, as well as those of the rest of the room, travelled over their bodies, wordlessly counting each scar that marred their skin, her eyes seemed to linger on the largest scar on Ron's torso, which he had gotten when they had fled the Ministry, but she didn't say a word, instead she stepped forward and took hold of her son's right forearm examining the cut on his shoulder. Biting back her anxiety at seeing the state of her son, Molly frowned as she cleaned the wound,

"You'll need to put some healing salve on it, but it shouldn't scar, thank Merlin, you already have enough of those by the looks of it." Her eyes drifted down to _Ron's_ hands as she moved back to treat _Harry_, but something caught her eye.

"Ronald Weasley, what is that," shrieked Molly as she stared at the mark on his right wrist.

"Figures she would freak out about the tattoo," _Ron_ mumbled to _Harry_.

"What are you complaining about, you only have one," _Harry_ muttered back.

"Well?" prompted Molly.

_Ron_ gulped and looked down at the tattoo he had gotten a year ago. He had never really liked the idea of a tattoo, but this one was different, it wasn't big and flashy, it fact it was only a few inches big and relatively simple. It was made up of three rings that were intertwined with each other, representing the 'Golden Trio', then below that was the numbers 020598 obviously standing for the date of the Battle of Hogwarts.

"It's a reminder," he said finally, not looking at his mother, instead glancing around the room at the faces that were staring at him, he smirked when he saw Hermione trying to hide her blush.

"A reminder?" asked Arthur, not really sure if he should approve or not.

"He means, that it's a sort of commemorative thing that a lot of people did after the war ended," said _Harry_ as Sirius's and Remus's gaze shifted to him. When he said a lot of people, he meant most of the Order and Dumbledore's Army, only instead of the rings; they either had a phoenix or DA above the date.

"So it would be safe to guess that you have one as well," stated Remus raising an eyebrow.

"Define one," said _Harry_ smiling innocently.

"Singular," glared Molly.

"Harry got into a whole honouring people kind of faze a couple of months after the war," explained _Ron_ as _Harry_ turned around. Sirius and Remus stood from where they had been sitting and moved awkwardly around the table towards _Harry_, trying to get a better look at the shield that now adorned his left shoulder blade.

The shield was split into four panels and each panel held an animal. In the first panel was filled in with black ink, but a proud looking stag stood facing the centre. Sirius's eyes moved to the next one and nearly gasped when he saw it, this panel was clear and a large shaggy black dog was inked in the middle. The bottom left panel was also clear but instead of a dog, there was a black wolf howling at a non-existent moon. And finally in the last panel, which was also filled in, stood an elegant doe, also facing the centre. Sirius's eyes travel further down the design to the script that was written at the bottom, the tears escaping as he read the words 'Mischief Managed'.

"Do they mean anything?" asked Remus as he wiped a tear off his cheek and _Harry_ turned around.

"Friendship, Loyalty, Courage and Love," said _Harry_ quietly. It had taken him a lot of time to work out what he wanted the tattoo to look like, the final design, he had realised was surprisingly simple, but had a lot of meaning behind it. Some of the meanings were simple such as that of the stag, Harry's father had valued the friendship he had formed between himself and the other Marauders, and as Remus had once told him, James had believed it the greatest dishonour to mistrust a friend. Padfoot, on the other hand symbolised the loyalty he showed to his friends and the little of the family he liked, these two pictures were the straight forward ones.

The last two, on the other hand, were much more complex. Moony stood for courage, but the wolf in the picture didn't just stand for Remus, it was a representation of Tonks as well, who had had the courage to hold onto Remus no matter what he did, or how many times he tried to leave her. The doe stood for love, but it too had a double meaning, and a double representation. The first and most obvious was of his mother whose love had saved his life time and time again and represented those who Lily Potter had loved. The second meaning however, he had never really told anyone, other than _Ron_ and_ Hermione_ what it was. The second person was Snape and what love had driven him to do and that he, like Lily had died protecting Harry from Voldemort.

Harry cleared his throat, "Well we better go and get changed, we've got some things to discuss." And with that _Harry_ and _Ron_ disappeared out the door and up to their bedroom.

Quiet conversation broke out around the table then and Remus moved back to his seat where Tonks took the opportunity to get him to talk to her.

Emmeline came up beside Sirius, "Are you okay?"

Sirius cleared his throat, "Yeah, it's just humbling. The short amount of time I got to spend with him and he still admires me so much."

"What do you mean the short amount of time, he would have known you for nearly ten years now," replied Emmeline confused.

"I'm not so sure."

"You don't think…" Emmeline trailed off not wanting to continue.

"The way he looks at me, something's not right," Sirius looked at the frown on Emmeline's face.

"I hope you're wrong, Harry isn't the only one that would be upset if we lost you,"

"I didn't know you still felt that way Em,"

She snorted. "I meant Remus of course," she answered with a wink before moving off to join in the conversation with Remus and Tonks.

Sirius didn't really know what was happening between him and Emmeline. In those dark moments when he was alone he sometimes thought that she wanted very little to do with him, he had after all broken her heart and then seeming betrayed her was well as the rest of the Order. He'd have himself half convinced and then she'd do something that completely knocked him off centre, like before when she was flirting with him. Did that mean she wanted to try again or was he just reading the situation wrong, was Azkaban affecting his judgement in this as well? Sirius shook his head and moved back to his seat watching Emmeline as she laughed at something Tonks had said. He looked over at Remus who couldn't take his eyes of Tonks and all Sirius could think was _these women are going to be the death of us, but by Merlin they were worth it_.


End file.
